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PREVENTION

More Prevention Tips
Trunk Releases Urgently Needed Coalition

What happened in West Valley City was a tragedy - but unfortunately not unique.

In fact, previous incidents like it have prompted the formation of a group that advocates changes in trunk design as a way to prevent more deaths. News Specialist Pamela Davis has been following this story and has tips for preventing it from happening to you.

Police believe the girls got into the trunk of the car by pulling a release lever inside, near the driver's seat. A lot of cars have levers or buttons to open the trunk, and now a lot of people want to know how they can protect their kids.

Nobody ever expected to find five missing girls in the trunk of a car. Now - a lot of people are realizing interior levers like this could be making it easy for kids to get access to trunks.

We found out that some cars come with safety systems that make interior levers and buttons stop working. Some cars like the Subaru do have a lever inside the car that would allow a person to pop the trunk. Police say it's possible that's how those five little girls got into the trunk they were found in. But this Subaru has a special switch. If you flip it, it will disable the lever inside the car and now the only way you can get into the trunk is by using a key.

Some Lincoln cars also have safety systems. You can push a button to open the trunk. But to prevent your kids from doing that, you can lock the button with a key.

A third way would be to keep a keyless remote entry box inside the trunk.

Meanwhile, Congressman Merrill Cook is suggesting it might be wise for ALL car manufacturers to install safety devices to prevent kids from locking themselves in trunks. He says the first thing to do is figure out what kind of release device would work best. "We don't want trunks flying open when they're going down the highway. We want some kind of release latch that a child would be able to operate," Cook says.

As it turns out, there's already a law on the books requiring the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration to study this issue.