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A new in-car safety device made in Australia is looking to save kids' lives by putting a stop to young children being left behind in hot cars

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Infalurt is an Australian-made in-car safety device that could save young lives.
Justin Hilliard
Head of Editorial
10 Mar 2022
2 min read

About 5000 young children need to be rescued from hot cars every year after being left behind, putting their lives at risk, so a new in-car safety device has been made in Australia, looking to solve the serious problem.

The locally designed and manufactured product in question, Infalurt, is claimed to be “the first of its kind” by its founder, Jason Cawthra.

“After seeing the tragic death rates for children left unattended in child car safety seats, I commenced a global search to identify if an alarm system already existed. It didn’t. I made it my mission to develop a simple and effective device,” he said.

Infalurt has three components, including a capacity sensor that is positioned below the child seat, a control unit that’s placed near the driver, and a vibrating key-fob alarm.

These communicate with one another and trigger an alarm if a child is left behind when the driver exits the vehicle.

“Just as fitted car seats are mandatory, we believe this device is just as necessary to keep kids safe,” Mr Cawthra added. “Infalurt was developed to give parents peace of mind. We would like to see every car fitted with an alert system to prevent needless deaths.”

It’s worth noting some newer Hyundai and models offer a similar in-built feature called Rear Occupant Alert, although it offers in-car audio and visual alerts instead.

The complete Infalurt system is available to purchase on the Infalurt website for $369, but its three components can be bought separately if required.

Justin Hilliard
Head of Editorial
Justin’s dad chose to miss his birth because he wanted to watch Peter Brock hopefully win Bathurst, so it figures Justin grew up to have a car obsession, too – and don’t worry, his dad did turn up in time after some stern words from his mum. That said, despite loving cars and writing, Justin chose to pursue career paths that didn’t lend themselves to automotive journalism, before eventually ending up working as a computer technician. But that car itch just couldn’t be scratched by his chipped Volkswagen Golf R (Mk7), so he finally decided to give into the inevitable and study a Master of Journalism at the same time. And even with the long odds, Justin was lucky enough to land a full-time job as a motoring journalist soon after graduating and the rest, as they say, is history. These days, Justin happily finds himself working at CarsGuide during the biggest period of change yet for the automotive industry, which is perhaps the most exciting part of all. In case you’re wondering, Justin begrudgingly sold the Golf R (sans chip) and still has plans to buy his dream car, an E46 BMW M3 coupe (manual, of course), but he is in desperate need of a second car space – or maybe a third.
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