What has changed, what hasn’t in 11 years since Cooper Harris died in hot car in Cobb

He now lives in Birmingham, Alabama, and is a registered sex offender, according to the Shelby County, Alabama, Sheriff’s Office.

In Georgia and across the country, several changes including technological improvements have been implemented to hopefully prevent similar tragedies. Georgia also enacted a second-degree murder law weeks after the toddler’s death.

But as the number of children dying in hot cars continues to rise, experts say more must be done. First, parents can’t fall for the idea that “it won’t happen to me,” according to Amber Rollins with the nonprofit group Kids and Car Safety.

“It is truly an impossible thing to fathom,” Rollins told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “How could you forget the thing that’s the most important thing in the world?”

But today’s parents are busy, juggling multiple responsibilities, and they can easily get distracted, she said.

Since 1990, at least 1,140 children have died in hot cars in the U.S., including 15 this year, according to data compiled by the Kids and Car group. In June, 4-year-old Kameron Jamel Williams died in Metter, Georgia, after climbing into the backseat of a parked car, investigators said.

Not all deaths of children in hot cars lead to criminal charges, such as in the Harris case.

The attorney for Harris did not respond to a request for comment on the case. The Cobb district attorney’s office also did not respond about whether current DA Sonya Allen plans to review the case. There is no statute of limitations on murder in Georgia.

Chuck Boring, lead prosecutor in the Harris case who is no longer at the Cobb DA’s office, previously said former DA Flynn Broady never reached out to prosecutors after the state Supreme Court’s ruling. Broady said he wouldn’t revisit the case.

Credit: Bob Andres

Credit: Bob Andres

Twenty-one states have laws regarding leaving a child unattended in a vehicle, according to a group called No Heat Stroke. Georgia is not one of the states with a specific law.

Despite parents facing criminal charges, the deaths of children in hot cars haven’t declined, the advocacy group says.

“We’ve been prosecuting parents like this situation for decades,” Rollins said. “And guess what, it hasn’t done anything to change things.”

In recent years, automakers have developed technology to help prevent children from being left behind in hot cars.

General Motors introduced an “End of Trip” alert in its 2017 GMC Acadia to let drivers know a rear door had been opened, according to Consumer Reports. Other automakers quickly followed with similar warning devices.

Some cars have motion detectors that detect movement in rear seats. If movement is detected after the driver is out, the horn sounds, lights flash and a message is sent to the driver’s phone, the Hyundai website states.

The most effective technology, according to advocates, is a radar system that can distinguish between babies and adults. So far, only a handful of models have it, including the Toyota Sienna minivan and Volvo XC90.

In 2021, Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which mandated the U.S. Department of Transportation set a safety standard to prevent hot car deaths. But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an agency of the U.S. DOT, missed its 2022 deadline and still hasn’t issued its rules.

“Where is the outrage? We have a solution,” Rollins said. “We have the ability to stop this. There is technology to stop this. And it’s unconscionable that we aren’t doing everything we can to do this for every single child.”