Tampa Dads Create Device to Prevent Hot Car Deaths

Called Sense-A-Life, the device reminds parents or caretakers to remove children from cars

Photo: FMB PHOTO/Getty Images

Two Florida fathers are doing their part to make sure no child ever dies in a hot car again.

Fadi Shamma and Jim Friedman, who are neighbors in Tampa, created Sense-A-Life, a two-stage device that uses sensors to remind parents or caretakers to take a child out of a car.

The pair have already applied for a patent for the device – that first uses a voice alert to remind drivers to remove a child from a car seat when the car door opens, then sends a back-up alert to a linked phone – and are seeking investors, telling Fox 13 they plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign in a few weeks.

“We were tired of hearing all these sad stories and seeing the agony on parent’s faces and we decided that this is such a serious problem that could probably be solved with a simple solution,” Shamma told the station.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that at least 30 children died from heat stroke in cars in 2014, the most recent year for which data is available. Fox 13 describes it as the second most common cause of death for children under the age of 14 in cars, besides collisions.

Shamma and Friedman intend to market the device to individuals, car companies and car seat manufacturers.

“We want this to be in every car seat,” Shamma told the station.