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 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.
Salvilla said the pain of losing her son never goes away.
"Emotions never go away. Feeling ashamed, the guilt of everything," Salvilla said.
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.