Every summer, an average of 37 children in America die in hot cars, forgotten in the back seat for a single terrible moment. These are not neglected children or negligent caregivers, these happen in regular families who love their children and do their best to protect them. Every one of these deaths is preventable and the technology to prevent them already exists.
In many new higher-end car seats, the car seat buckle, when closed, detects the child’s presence and can even measure temperature. An app on your phone connects to it. If the child is left in a vehicle (i.e. the caregiver’s phone goes out of range of the car), it sends escalating alerts to the caregiver’s phone and, if ignored, to the emergency contacts. The same happens when the child has an unsafe rise in temperature. This technology needs to become the standard.
I am a mother and a grandmother, not a lobbyist or a policy expert. After hearing of the most recent incident in Los Angeles, I simply could not stop thinking about this issue, so I did what any of us can do: I started writing letters.
I wrote to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal agency that regulates vehicle safety, proposing that child detection and temperature alert technology be built directly into car seats, not just vehicles. A car seat travels with every child regardless of what car they ride in. A simple Bluetooth sensor, a buckle detector, and an escalating smartphone alert could ensure no caregiver ever unknowingly walks away from their child again.
I wrote to both Maryland senators, to Senator Blumenthal, who authored the HOT CARS Act, to my House representative. I contacted child safety organizations nationally. None of this required special access or expertise. It required only that I care enough to sit down and write.
I am sharing this because grassroots change begins exactly this way, with one constituent and one letter, one conversation at a time. If this issue moves you, please write your own letter, your voice matters more than you think. I am attaching a sample letter that you can use to contact your representative.
* I want to stress that no technology can fully prevent tragedies. Technology is only as good as the people using it. It is always important to remember to check the back seats in your car. If you have small children, make this a habit in all seasons. There are many other safety measures to put in place to keep children safe. Make sure to tell your child’s teacher to call you if your child doesn’t arrive at school or playgroup as expected. Make it a habit to text or call your partner or a family member when you drop off the kids each morning, confirming that everyone arrived safely. Simple steps become habit when done every time you leave a car.
Template Letter: Child Car Seat Safety
Send to Your U.S. House Representative
How to use this letter
Personalize your letter
[Today’s Date]
Fill in your representative’s name – find it at house.gov using your zip code.
The Honorable [Representative’s Full Name]
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Re: NHTSA’s Overdue Hot Car Rulemaking and the Case for Car Seat-Integrated Child Detection
Dear Representative [Last Name],
My name is [Your Full Name], and I am a constituent writing from [Your City, State, Zip Code]. I am reaching out about a child safety issue that I believe demands Congressional attention: the ongoing failure by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to fulfill a mandate your colleagues passed into law.
OPTIONAL – Personalize here. You might mention that you are a parent, grandparent, childcare provider, or pediatric healthcare worker. A sentence about why this issue matters to you personally makes your letter significantly more powerful. Example: “As a parent of young children, the thought that a simple, affordable technology could prevent these tragedies, and is not yet required, is deeply troubling to me.”
[Optional: Add one or two sentences about your personal connection to this issue – e.g., your role as a parent, grandparent, or childcare worker, and why this matters to you.]
An average of 37 children die from vehicular heatstroke in the United States every year. These deaths are predictable, and they are preventable. The technology to prevent them already exists.
Congress recognized this in 2021. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act directed NHTSA to finalize rules requiring rear occupant alert systems in all new passenger vehicles by November 2023. After missing the initial deadline, a revised agency estimate of April 2025 was also missed. As of today, NHTSA has not published even a preliminary proposed rule. Meanwhile, children continue to die.
I am writing to ask two things of your office:
- Please formally inquire with NHTSA Administrator about the status of this overdue rulemaking and press for a firm, public timeline for its completion.
- Please consider supporting a complementary measure: directing NHTSA to study and develop safety standards for child-presence detection systems integrated directly into car seats themselves, not only into vehicles.
This second point matters because vehicle-based systems, even when mandated, will leave critical gaps:
- They are absent from the millions of older vehicles already on American roads.
- They fail when children enter a car independently, a scenario accounting for approximately 25% of hot car deaths.
- Six documented hot car deaths have occurred in vehicles already equipped with reminder systems.
A car seat-integrated alert system using widely available Bluetooth technology, buckle sensors, and escalating smartphone notifications, would travel with the child regardless of what vehicle they are in. It works in an older car, in a rideshare, or with a substitute caregiver. It is a portable, universal layer of protection that no vehicle mandate alone can provide.
The technology is not theoretical. It is already commercially available in some car seats today. What is missing is a safety standard that ensures it works consistently, alerts escalate appropriately, and all children benefit from it, not just those whose families can afford premium seats.
Congress passed the law yet NHTSA has not acted. I respectfully ask that your office help ensure the agency fulfills its legal obligation and considers going further to close the gaps that vehicle-based systems alone cannot address.
Thank you for your service to our community and for your attention to this urgent matter.
Respectfully,
[Your Full Name]
[Your Address]
[Your City, State, Zip Code]
[Your Phone Number]
[Your Email Address]
This template letter was created by Rochel Rabinowitz, Silver Spring, MD, as part of a citizen advocacy effort to advance car seat-integrated child detection standards. Please share freely.
View original letter
