*11-year-old Texas fifth grader Bishop Curry has invented a device that would help children and their parents prevent hot car deaths, reports NBC News.
Following the death of a local child who was left alone in a hot car, Curry was inspired to create the Oasis. Meant to be attached to the headrest or car seat, the Oasis can sense if a child is still in the seat once the car has stopped moving.
As PEOPLE.com reports, “If the car temperature reaches a dangerous level, the device blows out cold air and simultaneously sends a text message to parents, before ultimately alerting police and paramedics.”
“I was like, ‘This would be my one-way shot to actually helping people,'” Bishop told NBC News.
Bishop describes the “Oasis” like “texting, but without emojis.”
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Bishop’s dad, an engineer at Toyota also named Bishop Curry, was immediately sold on his son’s idea, “My thought was, ‘Why isn’t this in stores now?'”
Toyota was also so impressed by Bishop’s Oasis mock-up that the company sent him and his dad to Michigan for a safety conference.
Fern, the 6-month-old baby girl who had died in an overheated car, lived near Bishop, who says he passed by her family’s house all the time on the way to school. Since the tragic incident, he has met with Fern’s parents.
“They really supported me,” he said. “They didn’t want anything (like that) to happen to any other families.”
Since 1994, 804 children have died from heat-related illnesses in cars in the U.S., according to the Kids and Cars advocacy center.
Watch the report below:
