CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) – National organizations, lawmakers and a local mother are pushing to make cars safer after 33 children died of heat stroke in hot cars across the U.S. last year, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation .
Advocates are calling for the child protection “hot car” provision, which was passed as part of the Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act of 2021, to move faster so alert technology is mandatory and they can be saved future lives
According to Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, this provision would require new cars to have safety features such as automatic emergency braking, impaired driving prevention technology and detection and alarm systems that could detect when a child is alone in a car hot
A Chesterfield County woman grieving the loss of her husband and son joined others on a nationwide Zoom call Monday to advocate for change.
“‘How could anyone forget their child in the car?’ I went from that to a grieving widow who is suffering immensely from the pain of losing my son and my husband in one day,” said Laura Beck.
Beck will never forget the day in 2022 when she found out her son never made it to daycare and how she felt.
“I was traveling down the freeway with my emergency lights on, passing everyone I could pass to get to wherever my baby was,” Beck said.
That day in June, her husband forgot to take their son out of the car on the way to work. When he realized what he was doing and that his son had died, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Beck hopes that by telling his story, he can shed some light on the reality of hot car deaths.
“There’s such a stigma behind these kinds of tragedies,” Beck said. “So, I’m here to tell you what’s up,”
Now, Beck is joining members of Congress, Child and Car Safety, highway and auto safety advocates and other experts in a call to action to prevent this from happening to other families.
“Babies don’t have to die in hot cars, and the solution is in your hands,” Beck said. “You can protect them, the arrangement of the hot car must go forward immediately.”
Although the Jobs and Infrastructure Investments Act was passed in 2021, advocates are calling on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to issue a final rule that will require a reminder alert system in all new cars
“We need legislation that goes the extra step of requiring technology to detect a child in the back seat,” said Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal. “This sensor can literally save lives, a simple sensor can save lives, prevent cars from turning into death.”
NHTSA has until November to issue a rule on the provision.
