To spread awareness on National Heatstroke Prevention Day, the Broward Sheriff's Office demonstrated a new Google Play app, KidsSafe Alert, which debuted Thursday and was developed by Atlanta-based Mobile Life Solutions.
Once activated, the app sounds an alarm when the phone hasn't moved above 10 mph for five minutes, potentially reminding parents who are running an errand with the kids in the car to check on the kids.
"It's a modern-day string around your finger," said Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles. "But there's no substitute for direct checking, and just knowing where your child is."
An alternative to downloading the app, which is free, would be for parents or caretakers to leave their cellphone, purse, or "even your left shoe" in the car if the kids are still in there, so there's no chance of forgetting to return to the car quickly, Jachles said.
The app should be available on the Apple app store soon, since it's under review by Apple, said Mobile Life Solutions CEO and President David Meers.
Twenty-one children, including two in Florida, died after being left in hot cars this year, said Janette E. Fennell, founder and president of KidsAndCars.org, an organization dedicated to keeping kids safe around cars.
Since 1990, a child locked inside a car alone without air conditioning has died of heatstroke an average of every nine days, according to statistics kept by KidsAndCars.org.
In the first 10 minutes a car sits in the sun the temperature inside can rise by 20 degrees, said Jerry Brooks, chief medical director for the emergency department at Broward Health North. He spoke at BSO's demonstration.
A small child or baby doesn't have the sweat glands and other normal systems that a full-grown person does to regulate their temperature, Brooks said. That means that if their internal temperature reaches 105 degrees "for any length of time," there will be damage to the cells. That can result in brain damage and organ failure, he said.
A car at the demonstration went from an air-conditioned 80-degree interior to 106 degrees in 40 minutes.
"And that's a car that was sitting in the shade," Jachles said.
©2014 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
