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Proposed federal legislation aims to end hot-car deaths

Your car reminds you when the dome light is on, or if your keys are in still in the ignition, why can't it remind you to check the back seat? Safety advocates are backing bipartisan-sponsored federal legislationHot Cars Act of 2017, which would require new cars to be equipped with a visual and audio alarm system to alert caregivers if a child is left behind. 
An Orlando mother told Eyewitness News she backs the proposed legislation 100 percent. Stephanie Salvilla lost her 5-month-old son in 2009 when she said she accidentally forgot to take him to day care and left him in the car outside her Vero Beach workplace. 

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Salvilla told Channel 9's Angela Jacobs that she was sleep-deprived, dealing with daily schedule changes and thought she dropped her baby off before she headed to work.

"The memory that I have of dropping him off is no different then the memory of dropping off my daughter, except that one of them happened and one of them didn't," Salvilla said.

Salvilla said the pain of losing her son never goes away.

"Emotions never go away. Feeling ashamed, the guilt of everything," Salvilla said.

Salvilla moved to Orlando two years ago and told Eyewitness News that support groups with other parents and the advocacy group, kidsandcars.org, saved her life as she faced the legal system. Salvilla served probation after all her charges were dropped.

Now she's backing the newly proposed Hot Cars Act, federal legislation that requires safety alarms in all cars in the United States to alert drivers to check the back seat.

"I had a system where I put the bottles in the front seat," Salvilla said the unthinkable still happened.

Salvilla begs lawmakers to take action to spare others what she's lost.

"For us not to have technology, when there is technology that can be incorporated, it's unacceptable," Salvilla said.

Many automakers for years already have passenger sensing systems for the front passenger seat, it's just a matter of figuring out what's most effective for the back seat.

General Motors has added what it has called "rear seat reminder" on 18 different 2017 and 2018 models.