Res 1045-2019

By Council Members Cabrera and Vallone Whereas, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has confirmed that vehicular heatstroke poses a grave threat to public safety as, on average, a child dies from vehicular heatstroke once every ten days; and Whereas, Heatstroke begins when body temperature reaches 104 degrees Fahrenheit, quickly overwhelming the thermoregulatory system, and becomes lethal when body temperature reaches or exceeds 107 degrees Fahrenheit; and Whereas, Evidence has shown even a mild outside temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit can cause the inside temperature of a vehicle to rise above 110 degrees Fahrenheit within ten minutes; and Whereas, The NHTSA has confirmed that vehicular heatstroke, which occurs when an individual is left in a hot vehicle, allowing their core body temperature to quickly elevate to dangerous levels, is one of the leading causes of non-crash-related fatalities among children; and Whereas, 829 children have died as a result of vehicular heatstroke in the United States since 1998, including 32 children who succumbed to vehicular heatstroke since January 2019; and Whereas, Leading experts in cognitive neuroscience have emphasized that forgetting children in the back seat of a hot car is not always indicative of bad parenting, but rather is a memory problem exacerbated by a change in routine, stress or sleep deprivation and, most notably, can happen to anyone regardless of education or socioeconomic level; and Whereas, At present, rear seat alert systems technology exists to detect the presence of unattended children and animals in the rear seat of a vehicle once the driver gets out of the car; and Whereas, The Hot Cars Act of 2019, S.1601, sponsored by Sen. Roger F. Wicker, (R-MS) and H.R.3595, sponsored by Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), is bipartisan legislation introduced in both the House and Senate that would require all new passenger vehicles to be equipped with a system to detect the presence of an occupant in a rear seat and engage an auditory and visual warning system after the vehicle engine is deactivated; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon Congress to pass, and the President to sign, The Hot Cars Act of 2019 (H.R.3593/S.1601). CD LS 11,841 9/9/19