A Tri-State emergency room nurse and her engineer husband are in the final stages of producing a potentially life-saving sensor and app. It would remind parents and caregivers there is a child in the backseat of a car, helping to prevent that child from potentially suffocating in the heat.
The Fairfield Township couple began working on the idea of a sensor and text notification after Maria Striemer saw the dad of a child left in the car at the hospital. It troubled her, so she went to her husband, Grant Striemer, with an idea.
Backseet Buddy, as it's called, is the size of a hockey puck and fits in the back of a car seat. It has a bluetooth chip the size of a stamp, and fits into a circuit board with a tiny battery.
"It's piece of mind for responsible people," Grant Striemer says. "We're not trying to market this to people who are very forgetful. We could all forget and it takes just one time."
Striemer says that is due to the concept of "perspective memory."
"People believe they do things because of their routine and habits, so in their minds, 'I did do this, it was something on my checklist, 'I can't believe it, I did leave my kid in the car,'" he says.
This video explains exactly how Backseet Buddy works.
The latest statistics show an average of 37-38 kids in the U.S. die in hot cars every year.
The Striemers hope to get Backseet Buddy on the market in summer 2019.
