Proposed Bill Could Help Prevent Hot Car Deaths

We are a few months away from summertime in Tuscaloosa, but we do know one thing for our area, it gets hot.  It is a hard imagine that parents forget their children and leave them in a hot car but it happens.  Also, I completely understand that children are curious and an unlocked car is an invitation for exploration too.  I knew this was a serious problem when last summer, when Today posted “7 tips for preventing hot car-related deaths of children.”  The tips from Today even suggested to “keep something you need in the backseat and to look before you lock.”

According to Injury Facts, “the number of child hot car deaths for 2019 is currently 51.”  As much as we don’t want hot car-related deaths to happen, there is a new proposed bill in Montgomery by Representative Randy Wood.  According to WBRC Fox 6, “according to the bill, if your child doesn’t show up to daycare by 9:30 that morning, the daycare worker will call you. Representative Wood says the reminder call may be a lifesaver to a parent who may have unintentionally forgotten to drop their child off. The bill is named the Cash Edwin Jordan Act in memory of a young child who died after he was left in a car last September.”  Also reported by WBRC Fox 6 that “Representative Wood says he plans to make either amendments to the bill or a possible substitution, making it a suggestion and not a mandate for daycare workers so that they don’t become liable in the event a phone call is not made.”

(Source – you can read the full house bill here)

(Source - you can read all the statistics at Injury Facts here)

(Source – you can read the full Today article here)

(Source – you can read the full WBRC – Fox 6 story here)