App gives reminder to prevent children, pets from being left in hot cars

WASHINGTON - There's an app on your phone that's helping to ensure you don't leave your kids in the car.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, 99 degrees can feel like 123 inside your vehicle within an hour. So it's important to make sure that children and pets get out of the car with you.

There's a feature in the Waze app, meant to keep the little ones safe. The app uses crowd-sourced alerts for navigation but when you get to your destination, it can remind you to not forget your pet or baby in the back seat.

The National Safety Council said on average 37 children die each year in the U.S. as a result of heat stroke. In 2017, 42 children died -- which is up from 39 the year before.

Once you download the app, the setting can be found by hitting the magnifying glass in the bottom left corner, hit the gear symbol on the upper left corner for Settings and select "General" under the "Advanced Settings" menu. From there, you'll see a "child reminder" option on the bottom. The child reminder can be turned on or off, and even be customized.

Simple additional precautions from law enforcement officials can help prevent the unthinkable. Placing an important item like a bag or even shoes next to your child in the back seat is one way, but also look before you lock when getting out, and keep your keys out of reach of children so they can't get inside your vehicle.

For those traveling this holiday weekend, AAA is reminding drivers if you're traveling for the holiday check battery, tires and pack an emergency kit. There are devices for your car seat that will go off once the car has been turned off, as another option for a safety mechanism to help make sure that children aren't left in cars and to avoid heat stroke fatalities.