Ten-year-old Texas schoolboy invents device to stop babies dying in hot cars

Since 1998, at least 712 children have died of heatstroke in the US after being left in hot vehicles

A 10-year-old boy from Texas has invented a gadget that could save the lives of young children accidentally left in hot cars.

Over the last two decades, at least 712 children left in vehicles have died of heatstroke in the US, according to a meteorologist who began tracking the preventable deaths in 1998.

Schoolboy Bishop Curry said he would spend his summer holidays developing his

device – a small box with air ducts that blow cool air when it becomes too hot inside a car and an antenna that alerts parents and emergency services.Bishop, from McKinney, a town 30 miles north of Dallas, told Fox News he has submitted a patent for his invention, which should be approved this year.

The schoolboy said he came up with the idea "when a baby named Fern died down the street" due to a hot car and he saw the story on the news.

Bishop and his family have a number of manufacturers lined up to build the device, which he has called the Oasis.

They have already raised more than $20,000 (£15,800) through a crowdfunding campaign to help fund its development.

The device, currently in the design stages, is called the Oasis (Screenshot from NBC footage)

Bishop has built a model of his invention and will use the money raised to pay for prototypes and manufacturing.

"We live in Texas where hot car deaths are far too common," the boy's father, also called Bishop Curry, wrote on the GoFundMe page.

"Bishop already has a provisional patent and a 3D model of his invention".The 10-year-old, who has a one-year-old sister,  told NBC that "it would be a dream to have lots of inventions that would save many lives".

The box is designed to be latched on to a child's car seat.

Jan Null, a certified meteorologist and professor at San Jose State University, has remarked that the numbers of children dying in hot cars has remained steady over the last 19 years.

This could be due to a lack of awareness of the issue in the media and in local state laws, few of which have made leaving a child unattended in a car illegal,  he told the Washington Post.