Problem Statement

Problem:

              Babies and young children are vulnerable beings that need a lot of love and care in order to survive; therefore, leaving them in a hot car on a blistering day is not ethical. In this day and age, there is a large amount of parent who are doing just that, leaving children in the car. This is a problem because the children are overheating, dying in the cars and parents are being jailed. 
             Since the year 1998, 624 children have died from having heatstroke in the car, which means that there has been an average of 38 fatalities per year in the US (Fact Sheet). The state of most of the deaths is the state of Florida, which can be a very hot state with all of its humidity.  Most of the country’s fatalities have been children under two years old, but there has been children over the age of ten who have suffered the same fate. The time of these fatalities can depend on the last time the child drank something and what color the child is wearing, but the average time for the child to overheat is about fifteen minutes (Balmain 2012).

All of these children’s care givers have been jailed for “forgetting” the child, but it is not always a case of forgetting the child. There have been cases of “forgetting”, children playing in the car while unattended, and even caregivers who have intentionally left the child in the car (Fact Sheet). The parents and the families of the children are the people who are being directly affected by these occurrences. I read in an article that the public does not thin that it is fair to jail the parents because they are victims themselves. This statement can be true for the parents who just “forget” but not for the parents who intentionally leave their children in the car. About 18% or 111 of the 624 child fatalities have been because the child was left in the car by a parent.

There are a couple of strategies being used in order to not forget the children. The first technique that has been used for a long period of time is “The Shoe” trick. The parent puts the child in the car and he or she gets into the car themselves, once in the car a shoe is taken off and put in the backseat. The theory behind this method is that you will get out and realize that you do not have a shoe on and you have to find it and as a result you see the baby and remember to get him or her out. Another solution was a gadget invented by an eleven year old boy who needed an idea for a project. The gadget is called the EZ Baby Saver and it wraps around the driver’s seat and attaches to the door in order to stop the driver from getting out. This device would make the driver remember to retrieve their child from the back seat. I am not sure if the ‘left shoe’ technique or the EZ Baby Saver has actually saved lives but they are a couple of solutions to a very dangerous problem.

My Solution:

The solution that I have come up with for this problem is making a bracelet that sends a shock or a vibration through the driver to remind them of the child in the back seat. Every parent or guardian would receive a bracelet at the hospital or when they retrieve the child from a foster care or adoption agency.

Sources:

Balmain, M. (2012, July 12). Tragedy in the backseat: Hot-car deaths. CNN. Retrieved July 30, 2014, from http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/12/living/hot-car-deaths-parenting/index.html

Fact Sheet - Heatstroke Deaths of Children in Vehicles. (n.d.). Fact Sheet - Heatstroke Deaths of Children in Vehicles. Retrieved July 30, 2014, from http://www.ggweather.com/heat/

Peer Review:

1.       What is the broader topic that the author proposes is a problem?

            death

2.       How does the author define that topic? State that definition here.

            It is defined by showing the problem of babies dying

3.     Is there a readily identifiable thesis statement which states the problem and reasons in a because   claim?

            Yes. "This is a problem because the children are overheating, dying in the cars and parents are being jailed."

4.    How is the problem contextualized? (e.g. when the problem began, what has already been done regarding the problem, the consequences of the problem, etc.).

            I explain how it is a problem by giving historical background and who it is effecting

5.     Is the problem topic specific and located in the smallest possible category? (e.g. cats > feral cats on UF’s campus)

            The topic is specific but it is not in a very small location. It is happening throughout the US

6.    Is the problem unique? If the topic is popular (e.g. obesity, gun control, abortion), does the problem statement offer a new interpretation of the common problem?

            The problem is not as popular as the above examples but it is heard of on a regular basis.