Pueblo man creates device to prevent kids from dying in hot cars

A former engineer in Pueblo has taken on a new challenge; preventing kids from dying in hot, locked cars.

Lane Maxwell wanted to come up with a device that could remind parents they have a child in the car without relying on any other technology.

“This is a device to remind the driver that there’s still a baby in the car seat,” Maxwell said.

Over the last few years, he’s created a child seat alert system, called No Babies Behind.

It works as two pressure pads, one sits in a car seat, the other on the driver’s seat.

The two are connected through a small, battery-operated circuit board and a telephone cord. It is activated when the baby’s pad is sat on first, then followed by the driver. When the weight has let off of the baby side, a beep goes off until the weight from the car seat is removed.

Maxwell’s efforts to get this device to consumers hasn’t been successful thus far.

“In talking to people about it, their first reaction is ‘well I would never forget my baby!,” Maxwell said.

Unlike other devices that require an app on a smartphone, or rewiring a car, Maxwell wanted to create a device that would only rely on itself, but now he’s worried parents won’t buy it out of shame.

“We have to find somebody who can motivate people and overcome the stigma and the denial and what’s what we’re looking for,” he says.

Maxwell currently has enough supply to make about 100 of the devices but isn’t set-up for mass production.

He’s hoping to find an investor that could help him market the invention and find a place to make them.

You can find more information on the product here.