In an effort to shield children from the perilous heat of Tennessee’s summer, state officials have endorsed the ‘Baby in the Back’ hangtag program, which provides free reminders to drivers to double-check their back seats for little ones. Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, teamed with State Rep. Scott Cepicky, the health and safety departments, and AAA, implores caregivers to use these lifesaving tools, as the Tennessee Department of Safety reports.
Heatstroke, an ever-present threat to unattended children in vehicles, catalyzes the ‘Baby in the Back’ initiative as a visual cue for parents, which according to Secretary Hargett, and this effort is joined by the Department of Health, the Department of Safety and Homeland Security’s Highway Safety Office and AAA in the quest to forefend vehicular tragedies State Rep. Cepicky, inspired by a disabled veteran’s car placard, relayed his brainchild to Secretary Hargett, and since then, close to 600,000 Tennesseans have obtained the free hangtags, as Secretary Hargett recounted his appreciation for Rep. Cepicky’s idea and the collective effort to boost child safety in a statement obtained by the Tennessee Department of Safety.
Statistics depict a grim reality: one child succumbs to heatstroke in a car every ten days on average, largely because a caregiver has overlooked their presence in the vehicle, Tennessee Health Commissioner Ralph Alvarado explained that the hangtag’s simplicity belies its vital role in ensuring the safe journey of our youngest passengers, as he spoke on the critical need for such reminders “No distraction is worth a life when we can make sure every child gets home safely,” he told the Tennessee Department of Safety…