Mom creates gadget to protect kids dying in hot cars

Chelsea Todaro | March 22nd, 2017

Team Clark is adamant that we will never write content influenced by or paid for by an advertiser. To support our work, we do make money from some links to companies and deals on our site. Learn more about our guarantee here.

An Arizona mother might have just saved the lives of children across the country.

Marcie Miller, 34, along with her colleagues at Intel, invented a device that prevents parents from leaving their children in hot cars, Today reports.

Device works with your smartphone

It’s called the Intel Smart Clip, which is a gadget that attaches to a child’s car seat and will warn parents if they have left their child behind in the car. The device is controlled through an app on the parent’s smartphone and it will sound an alarm if it detects that their child is strapped in the car seat while they are walking away.

This year alone, 18 children in the United States have died of heat stroke in cars, and more than half of children who die “are simply left behind by a caregiver who had forgotten they are in the backseat,” Today reports.

Miller, who has a 16-month-old daughter, said she “has heard the stories all too often” about children dying in scorching hot cars. Her hometown in Chandler, Ariz. reaches 111 degrees in the summertime.

‘Unfortunately, every year — especially growing up in Arizona — you hear of these tragedies because it gets so hot, so quickly,” Miller said to Today.

Intel said the Smart Clip will be on the shelves for the holiday season for under $50, Today reports.