A device designed by a pair of collaborating Tampa dads called Sense-A-Life is targeted at preventing parents and caregivers from leaving young children behind when they exit their cars.
According to WFTS Tampa Bay, Jim Friedman and Fadi Shamma created the system in 2015, and it’s recently gained traction amongst consumers. The invention operates with the use of two wireless devices which communicate with each other to create alerts when a pressure-sensor is triggered in the rear seat, alarming the driver if they exit the car without also removing the passenger.
A pad is inserted under the car seat cover and activates when a child sits atop it. Should the alert go off, it comes through a bulky device on the driver’s seat. If the driver leaves a kid behind, the device up front announces “occupant detected in car seat. Please remove child from the seat,” and an alert is sent to the driver’s cell phone (since no one ever leaves those behind).
Co-creator Fadi Shamma offers, “We babyproof our homes, our offices, everywhere in our lives. So, why not baby proof our vehicles where we do spend a lot of time?”
As of right now, Sense-A-Life is only available as a separate unit, but the two dads are working to integrate the technology into car seats themselves. Adding it to an existing car seat costs $200.
While it seems inconceivable to some parents that they would ever forget their kid in a hot car, the number of children who died in 2018 from related accidents reached 48 by September, which is well above the annual average of 38. Victims this year ranged in ages of 10 weeks to five-years-old. Florida is second in the nation for hot car deaths.
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