12-year-old invents device that helps prevent hot car deaths

Lydia Denton, 12, has developed an affordable device that could save lives.

Her Beat The Heat Car Seat measures the temperature inside a car, sending an alert when it reaches 102 degrees. It would likely cost $50. Denton designed the portable device after learning about children who have died after accidentally being left inside hot cars. "I got really emotional about it because it's something that's happening in the real world that I knew could be fixed," the North Carolina resident told Good Morning America.

Denton's invention won the CITGO Fueling Education Student Challenge, and she is using the $20,000 grand prize to get the Beat The Heat Car Seat on the market. Denton's siblings worked with her on the device — her older brother did some coding, while her younger sister helped with the design — and their mom, science teacher Covey Denton, told GMA she loved seeing them come together for the project. "Kids don't know what impossible is," she said. "They dream so big."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up