A 12-year-old girl has invented a device that she says will prevent hot car deaths.
Lydia Denton wanted to do something about all of the babies that were dying from being left in hot cars, so she came up with a solution...
"At first, I thought about raising money for the families, but that wouldn't fix the problem," Denton said. "I wanted to invent something that could prevent the deaths from happening. My mom has a saying: 'Stop complaining and do something about it.' Complaining or being sad doesn't solve the problem, we have to take action to make a change."
She invented a device that would work with a pressure pad under the car seat cover, which can sense weight over 5 pounds. So when a baby is in the seat, the system starts itself up and monitors the temperature.
Once the temperature reaches 102, the seat sets off an alarm and displays a warning on the LCD monitor. A text is also sent to the parent's phone. If no response within 60 seconds, 911 is messaged with a GPS locator that sends the address to emergency services.
Denton’s invention recently won CITGO's Fueling Education Student Challenge and received a $20,000 prize. Denton says she plans to save the prize money for college, but did however take out $100 to treat herself!
"Winning the money was cool, but I really care about saving lives," she said. "My first thought was, 'Maybe no babies will die this summer!'"
Denton added that she has many more inventions swimming around in her head, namely something to try and help those with severe allergies.
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