Restaurant owner wins patent for child car seat safety system to prevent children from being forgotten in cars

(Image source: news-journalonline.com)

According to foreign media reports, an alumnus and restaurant owner of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the United States has applied for a patent for a device to prevent children from dying of heat stroke after being forgotten in the car. The device, called the "Child Car Seat Safety System", is equipped with a weight sensor that is activated once it detects a child is placed in a car seat. After the driver gets in the car, the device will also connect to the mobile phone via Bluetooth.

If the driver leaves the vehicle without removing the child from the seat, the device sends a warning message to their smartphone. If the child is forgotten in a hot car, authorities will receive another message. It is yet to be determined how far away the driver must be from the vehicle and what temperature will trigger the alarm.

The inventor, Ibrahim Mahmoud, 46, a father of five, aged between 5 and 14, hopes to reduce the number of children who die from being left in hot cars, as 53 children died in the United States in 2019, according to data from the nonprofit child safety organization KidsandCars.org.

Mahmoud said he felt sad about the deaths caused by the incident and had developed the device in his spare time two years ago. In December last year, he obtained a patent for the invention.

The inventor says parents and caregivers who use child car seat safety systems can avoid such catastrophic mistakes. A 10-minute trip to the grocery store to buy coffee grounds could result in a child's death, but the device would alert the parent or caregiver to return to the car.

Other car-related tragedies can also be avoided by using the device. For example, the child car seat safety system can prevent children from being kidnapped during vehicle thefts because the device is also equipped with a GPS locator that allows authorities to track children in car seats.