Forgotten child car alarm planned

CAR manufacturers are to look at fitting alarms to remind parents that they have a child with them, after the death of a young girl who was accidentally left for four hours in her mother's car.

Family Secretary Nadine Morano said she was planning a meeting with car-makers and alarm developers to look at what systems can be set up to avoid similar incidents.

The working group will examine what is involving in making the child alarm a standard feature in all new cars.

There have been 22 recorded cases of parents forgetting children in cars over the past two years, according to the Consumer Safety Commission, an independent public body.

The latest case involved a 37-year-old mother from Arceuil, south of Paris, whose 16-month-old daughter died from dehydration.

The girl was left alone in the car in the hottest part of the day, with outdoor temperatures of up to 27°C.

The woman said she had spent the night in hospital with her husband looking after another of their children, who is seriously ill. She woke up late for work and rushed straight to the office, forgetting to drop off her daughter with the childminder.

She was taken into police custody on Friday afternoon and released at the weekend following questioning.

In a similar case in 2008, a man from the Isère was handed an eight-month suspended prison after his two-and-a-half-year-old son died when he was accidentally left behind in a car.

Konstantin Sutyagin - Fotolia.com