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  • Mother warns parents after 9-month-old dies in 'hot car' on 66-degree-day

    For Raelyn Balfour of Charlottesville, the idea of forgetting her baby in the backseat of a hot car was unthinkable. "I had heard of stories of this happening to other parents, and I'm like, 'That's an irresponsible parent, there's no way that you can do that,'" she said. "Until it happened to me." Balfour says other people considered her a great parent. And she was known for her attention to detail. While serving with the Army in Iraq, she was able to manage big-budget projects while accounting for every penny. But on March 30, 2007, she made a mistake she's had to live with ever since. "I still ask myself every day -- how could I leave him, how could I forget him?" Balfour said.

  • Family Shares Hot Car Survival Story with Donna Terrell

    Many of you remember the Judge Wade Naramore story in Hot Springs. An entire community was shaken when the judge forgot and left his son, Thomas, in a hot car. Thomas died that day. We know there are situations where people knowingly walk away and leave a child in a hot car, but Judge Naramore said, he forgot Thomas was there. Eric Styvusant knows what that is like. The same thing happened to him. He forgot, he got sidetracked and left his son Michael in the car on a hot day. It is a big mistake that can add up to a "life sentence" of guilt.

  • Could a bill that removes liability for breaking into a hot car to rescue a child, pet save lives?

    The weather may be cooling off, but it's still possible for children and pets to die from being left in a hot car. One Dallas legislator hopes to make it easier for people to intervene, and possibly save a life. Texas leads the nation in deaths of children in hot cars. Seven of the 34 hot car deaths this year occurred in Texas. That number is up from 24 last year, and 31 in 2014. The latest incident happened Friday in Mississippi, according to noheastroke.org,  which tracks those deaths.

  • EDITORIAL: No more child deaths in hot cars - rear-seat sensors should be mandated in all new cars

    New, technologically savvy cars do a great job of reminding drivers that they have failed to put on their seat belts while driving or forgotten to turn off their headlights or left their keys in the car when they've reached their destination. But there's one sensor that could save lives that isn't found in new cars, and should be: Every new car should have a life-saving feature to help prevent parents from leaving their babies and toddlers in the back of a blistering hot car.

  • No action while more kids die in hot cars

    Nearly 800 children have died after being left in the back seats of sweltering cars since 1990, including more than 70 in Florida, according to KidsAndCars.org. Now car makers may be required to add alarm systems to alert parents when I child is left in a back seat.

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