Saddened By Infant’s Death, 10-Year-Old Invents Device To Prevent Hot Car Deaths

Credit: NBC

A 10-year-old from McKinney, Texas named Bishop Curry has just invented a device to solve the problem that parents face every summer as temperatures soar outside and inside of cars. Sadly, some deaths of children occur in hot cars because of neglect or on purpose by abusive parents, but just as often there are caring parents who simply forget that their child is in the car until it’s too late.

That’s exactly what happened almost exactly one year ago to Bishop’s neighbor after the father of three children dropped off his two older children, ages 5 and 3, at daycare, but decided to keep the 6-month-old daughter for the day because she was running a fever. When he arrived at home, he was so used to being alone that he forgot Fern, the infant, in the car and decided to take a nap. About 4 hours later, he awoke in a panic after he remembered that she was in the car, but it was too late. She died from heat stroke and her father was arrested and charged with manslaughter.

Credit: NBC

The tragedy hit close to home because the Curry family has a 1-year-old as well, and they say they can relate to forgetting that the baby was with them.

“Sometimes babies fall asleep and they’re really quiet, so if you’re rushing home from work or you’re rushing to the grocery store, I could see how somebody could forget,” said Bishop’s dad, who is also named Bishop.

Credit: NBC

The 10-year-old was saddened by this preventable tragedy and set out to come up with a solution. His dad describes the fifth grader as someone who is “fascinated with making things,” often creating small inventions at home to play with.

“I made a clay prototype and the invention’s name is Oasis,” Bishop said.

Originally imagined as a full car seat, Bishop’s design has evolved into a small clip-on for an existing car seat and latches onto the top in order to detect if a child is in it. The device then detects the temperature of the surrounding area and uses an antenna to alert the parents and authorities. While the baby waits for help, the device emits cool air to keep the baby’s temperature regulated.

Credit: NBC

When Bishop thought of this idea at first, he never imagined that he would be able to take it so far and that so many people would support his vision. His dad helped him start a GoFundMe page to turn the prototype into a reality and they have since raised over their goal amount in order to get it off the ground with patenting, licensing, and development.

Since the inception of the GoFundMe page, Bishop has hired an intellectual property attorney to help him manage the legalities of creating something and he and his brother have started Kid Ladder LLC to help young entrepreneurs realize their dream and hone their ideas. At such a young age, these are some phenomenal accomplishments that the family recognizes could not have happened without the generosity of others.

Credit: Bishop Curry IV

Bishop’s main goal is to get the device out on the market by or before 2018, but he has a lot of work ahead of him and the determination to succeed and prevent more deaths. His goal is to help as many children, caregivers, and parents as possible with this and other future inventions.

“It would be a dream to have lots of inventions that would save many lives,” Bishop said.

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