General Motors Announced Important New
Technology
...to Help
Save Children Trapped in Hot Cars
OSHAWA, Ontario (Thursday, May 3, 2001). Today, for the
first time in Canada, General Motors demonstrated
pioneering new low-energy radar sensor technology
designed to help prevent children from dying or becoming
permanently injured in dangerously hot vehicles. The
sensor technology is so sophisticated that it can detect
motion as subtle as the breathing of an infant sleeping
in a rear-facing child safety seat.
Available
data indicates that at least 120 children in the United
States - most of them age 3 and under - have died of
heatstroke (hyperthermia) in hot, parked cars since
1996.
"We are targeting a sensor like this for
certain vans and full-size utilities; we intend to begin
this rollout in the 2004 calendar year, to alert
caregivers or passersby about the presence of an
unattended child in a potentially dangerous, hot
vehicle," said GM of Canada's Manager of Vehicle Safety,
Roger Thomas.
"Our researchers were alarmed to
discover that children were dying needlessly in hot cars
because parents and caregivers are simply unaware of the
risk. We really don't know how many children are harmed
in this way each year because there are no databases
that collect this specific information. The data from
the United States was drawn from a careful review of
various newspapers so there is no way to determine the
overall statistics. It's likely that the actual number
of deaths and serious injury is much higher. Whatever
the true number, these deaths are tragic because they
are all preventable," said Thomas.
The sensor
will focus primarily in the rear seating area, where
children are most likely to be. Once it detects that a
child or another living being, such as a pet, is present
and that the temperature is at or is likely going to
increase to potentially dangerous levels, the sensor
will trigger a unique horn alarm. The horn sounds three
distinct "chirps," similar to the "S" in an SOS distress
signal.
The thresholds for sounding the alarm
are being developed based on data collected last fall
during an unprecedented study funded by GM of Canada and
conducted by hyperthermia researchers at McMaster
University in Hamilton, Ontario. The research team at
McMaster was led by internationally-known Dr. Oded
Bar-Or, a pediatrician and director of the Children's
Exercise and Nutrition Centre at the university.
According to Dr. Oded Bar-Or, extreme heat
affects infants and small children more quickly and
dramatically than adults. Because of their smaller size,
their core temperature can increase three to five times
faster than that of an adult. Heatstroke, or
hyperthermia, occurs when the body's core (rectal)
temperature reaches 40.5 degrees Celsius (105 degrees
Fahrenheit). Dr. Bar-Or's research revealed that the air
temperature in a previously air-conditioned small car
exposed to the sun on a 35-degree C. (95 degrees F.) day
exceeds 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees F.) within 20
minutes and 65.5 degrees Celsius (150 degrees F.) within
40 minutes.
Dr. Bar-Or emphasized that leaving a
window slightly opened, or "cracked," on a sunny day may
do little to prevent the temperature inside a vehicle
from rising to a level that is dangerous for children,
vulnerable adults and pets. Because of the misperception
that opening the windows may make a difference, and
because of a general lack of awareness about this issue,
parents and caregivers are being reminded not to leave
children unattended in vehicles, and to always keep cars
locked while they are in garages or driveways.
"This low-energy radar sensor should help save
lives and prevent needless injury before it occurs, "
said Emile Therien, president of the Canada Safety
Council. "Just as important, however, is the need to get
the message out: It is never safe to leave a child alone
in a vehicle - even for a few minutes. Vehicles are not
a place for children to play."
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