Reblog >> Girl invents product to alert parents of children left in car

 "17-year-old Mighty Girl Alissa Chavez wants to make sure that another child never dies due to being left in a hot car and the New Mexico teen has invented a device to do just that. Last week, the city of Albuquerque honored Alissa for her invention of the "The Hot Seat" alarm system. Now, she's raising funds on Indiegogo to further develop her prototype and, hopefully, make her life-saving device available to parents in the near future.

Every year in the US, dozens of children die in overheated cars -- more than 600 since 1998. When she was in eighth grade, Alissa heard about three children who died during the summer after being forgotten in cars. Growing up around many children since her mother owns a day care center, Alissa wanted to help prevent further accidental deaths. As she told the Washington Post, "I felt that would be a good project for my eighth-grade science fair project — to find something to prevent those accidents from happening."

Using a door alarm, Alissa designed a system that would alert parents if they left the vicinity of their car with a child still in a car seat. She won her science fair and has spent the past three years refining her now patented invention and developing a business plan. Her newest version of the Hot Seat uses a car seat sensor pad that communicates with a key fob. If a parent is more than 40 feet from the vehicle and the sensor pad senses that the child is still in the car, three alarms go off -- one on the key fob, one via a phone app, and one on the vehicle itself to alert others in the vicinity.

Upon recognizing her as a "Good Samaritan," Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry stated, "Alissa's work is remarkable and inspirational. I'm so proud of this young entrepreneur and her work to improve the lives and prevent tragedies."

Alissa only has five days to reach her Indiegogo goal to fund further development of the Hot Seat -- to learn more or support her project, visit http://bit.ly/1osSryQ

To learn more about why this type of accidental death has become more common in recent years, check out "You'd Never Forget Your Child In The Car, Right?" at http://bit.ly/1rIbzvB

You can also read more about Alissa's story in the Washington Post, visit http://wapo.st/1pnWMjh "

[This was originally published by www.amightgirl.com on their facebook page]