A Florida lawmaker wants to make it illegal to leave a child in a vehicle by themselves for any amount of time.
Right now you can leave a child in a car that's not running, but only for up to 15 minutes.
Now, after the recent hot car death of a young boy in Delray Beach, a state representative in Florida is proposing to tighten the law.
"I am working on a bill that would prohibit a person from leaving a child in an unattended car, with the engine off, for "ANY" time period," Rep. Emily Slosberg (D-Boca Raton) tells her constituents.
Current law allows a child to be left in a hot car, unattended, for up to 15 minutes, if the engine is off and the child is 6 years of age or older.
"I didn't know you could leave them in the car at all. I think that's crazy," says Francesca Bravo of Tampa.
She says she wouldn't leave her 4-year-old boy Alex in the car by himself under almost any condition.
"Of course when I'm going to go get gas and stuff like that I feel like, okay, I'm only going to be out of the car for a second. But I still take him down because it's still way too hot," says Bravo.
"I put myself in the position of like, I wouldn't even want to be in the car for a minute," she adds.
The child safety advocacy group Kids And Cars tells ABC Action News that they support Slosberg's proposed changes, adding that leaving a child in a vehicle for any amount of time is too much time.
KidsAndCars.Org tallies hot car deaths, and reports that 39 kids died in the U.S. last year from a heat stroke
