Future Aprils will see an increased governmental focus on ensuring that young children are not left unattended in hot vehicles, now that “Ariya’s Law” is part of Florida Statute.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed off on SB 554, a piece of legislation that makes April “Hot Car Death Prevention Month,” intended “to raise awareness of the dangers of leaving children unattended in motor vehicles and how to prevent hot car deaths from occurring.”
The legislation from Sen. Jennifer Bradley of Fleming Island is intended to “encourage” the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Health, local governments and other agencies “to sponsor events that promote public awareness and education on the dangers of leaving children unattended in motor vehicles and how to prevent hot car deaths.”
The bill stresses “motor vehicle safety for children,” including informing people of “criminal penalties associated with leaving a child unattended or unsupervised in a motor vehicle” and ways a “bystander” can “rescue a child who is unattended in a motor vehicle and vulnerable or in imminent danger of suffering harm.”
The bill is named after 10-month-old Ariya Paige, a Baker County baby who was left in a vehicle by a babysitter and died from the July heat.
“Since 1998, Florida has had the second largest number of child heatstroke deaths in vehicles (110), second only to Texas (143),” a bill analysis notes. Of that number, seven of those deaths, including Ariya’s, happened last year.
Bradley, who represents Baker County, said in a committee stop the bill was close to her heart and that she can’t “imagine what that family has endured.”
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