Posted by Stefanie Zucker on November 11, 2024 · Leave a Comment
Last updated on March 29th, 2025 at 04:04 pm
We all know little kids love to climb. And hide-and-seek is often a favorite game. Unfortunately no matter how often you stress the danger, a car trunk can still look like a great place to play. That said, I think all of us would agree that with little kids around it’s a good idea to have an internal trunk release – especially since they are known to be the easiest and fastest way to escape from inside of a car trunk. What may not be commonly known however is that most vehicles older than model year 2002 do NOT have a trunk release accessible from inside the trunk compartment. An organization called Kids and Cars has made it a priority to not only pass on this information but to try and address the problem.
Kids and Cars‘ goals are to ensure that not only are children never left unattended in or around vehicles but also to support the design of safer vehicles that eliminate unnecessary deaths and injury to children. Kids and Cars maintains a national database tracking deaths and injuries to children left unattended in or around motor vehicles. Currently there is no federal or state agency that collects this information
In 2009, Janette Fennell, founder of Kids and Cars.org appeared on SpikeTV’s “Surviving Disaster: Home Invasion” during the segment on how to escape from a locked car trunk. Shortly after the broadcast, (upon receiving an abundance of requests), Kids and Cars began offering an after-market Emergency Trunk Release kit. If you do not currently have an emergency glow-in-the-dark trunk release, it is imperative you purchase one, whether from Kids and Cars or elsewhere; if you have one I highly recommend making sure every child knows what it is and how to use it.
Too many children have lost their lives after gaining access to a car trunk that did not have this simple safety device. Not a single trunk related fatality has been reported where one of these devices was installed.
The message is clear…we just need to hear it.
