This Simple Trick Will Prevent You from Forgetting Your Child or Pet in the Car

Summary

The author suggests using a twister tie as a visual reminder to prevent leaving children or pets in hot cars, a method originally devised to avoid draining the car battery by accidentally leaving lights on.

Abstract

In response to recurring incidents of hot car deaths, the author recalls a personal strategy used to prevent inadvertently leaving car lights on, which could lead to a dead battery. The method involves using a conspicuous twister tie as a physical reminder to turn off the headlights. The author proposes adapting this approach to remind drivers to check the back seat for children or pets before exiting the vehicle, potentially averting tragic accidents due to heat exposure.

Opinions

The author believes that a simple, visible reminder can effectively prevent hot car deaths.
The author implies that relying on future car safety features is less practical than implementing a straightforward, immediate solution.
The author emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility and proactive measures in ensuring the safety of vulnerable passengers.

After yet another tale of a hot car death.

Having read about yet another hot car death where I live, I remember this simple thing I used to do to keep from running the battery down.

My first car was a Yugo. (Don’t laugh.) Along with being the cheapest car of the 1980’s, this car did not warn one when you turned the lights on in the rain and then got out of the car when you got where you were going.

After being stranded with a dead battery a couple of times, I needed a solution.

I took a twister tie — the longer the better — bent it in half, and hung it over the switch for the headlights. I found one that was white with red candy stripes so that I saw it every single time I got in the car, which reminded me that it was there to be used.

Every time I turned the headlights on in the daytime, I would take the twister tie off and wrap it around my finger. Now there was no way I could get out of the car and not realize I needed to turn the lights off.

No more dead battery!!

Rather than wait for car manufacturers to design some kind of warning for those leaving a sleeping child or pet in the car, a simple twister tie, if used every time you put the child or the pet in the back seat, would prevent all hot car deaths.

Try it!!