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Car Seat App: Alert! You Left Your Kid In The Car

Child safety in the car just got a welcome boost as TOMY, the manufacturer of The First Years car seat, unveiled the first parental alert system available from any car seat manufacturer. The system alerts parents of potentially life-threatening situations to their child passengers, such as:

  • The child seat is not installed correctly.
  • The child becomes unbuckled or wriggles loose while the car is in motion.
  • The child is inadvertently left in the vehicle after the parent or caregiver leaves the vehicle.
  • The child is at risk of injury or death due to heatstroke or extreme cold temperatures in the vehicle.

Called The First Years IAlert, the safety monitoring and alert system is seamlessly incorporated into The First Years IAlert Convertible Car Seat, a new product coming out this fall from the company within The First Years True Fit Convertible Car Seat line. The First Years car seat line is for use with children weighing from 5 to 65 pounds.

The First Years brand has been recognized by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA's) and awarded its 5-Star Ease-of-Use Rating. Currently in prototype stage, when The First Years IAlert Convertible Car Seat is ready it will be submitted to the NHTSA for their testing as well.

Getting the alert system ready to go is quite simple and only takes minutes. Just download the mobile app and set up the prompts for the IAlert system. The system enables monitoring of the child's car seat, and notifies parents via smartphone if the rear-facing car seat is not installed at the desired angle, if the child becomes unbuckled or gets out of the seat when the car is moving, if the parent or caregiver leaves the child in the car after reaching their destination, or if the temperature in the back seat becomes dangerously hot or cold.

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This story originally appeared at The Car Connection.

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