Schakowsky Statement on National Heatstroke Prevention Day

Today, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, a Chief Deputy Whip and original cosponsor of the HOT CARS Act, released the following statement marking National Heatstroke Prevention Day:

“So far in 2018, twenty-nine young lives have been lost to heatstroke inside vehicles. That’s nearly one life lost every week. We cannot allow this quiet epidemic to continue, especially as these tragedies are preventable. By marking National Heatstroke Prevention Day, I hope we can raise awareness, and encourage Americans to stay vigilant by ‘looking before they lock’ as this blisteringly hot summer goes on.

“I also believe it is time that Congress address these deaths. I was proud to see HOT CARS Language pass the House as part of the bipartisan SELF-DRIVE Act last year, but we need it to become law. I encourage my colleagues to join me as cosponsors of the HOT CARS Act and hope that we can move it forward and enshrine it into law as soon as possible. Children are dying preventable deaths – we cannot afford to wait.”

HOT Cars legislation would help prevent children from being needlessly killed and injured when unknowingly left alone in vehicles. The bi-partisan effort has received widespread support from more than twenty of the nation’s leading public health, consumer and safety organizations, as well as experts in neuroscience and the brain memory system and families who have lost their children or whose children have been seriously injured due to child vehicular heatstroke. The HOT CARS Act would require the U.S. Department of Transportation to issue a final rule requiring vehicles to be equipped with a system that alerts the driver to check the rear seat after a car is turned off.