Autism: GPS can save lives

Good article, but an Amber Alert would not have been issued since they are for abductions only.

GPS firm says autistic child’s death preventable

John Fulton, 12, was found dead near his Grand Forks, B.C., home on Monday, August 17, 2009. (Handout photo)

By Darcy Wintonyk, ctvbc.ca

The death of an autistic child in British Columbia’s southern Interior was preventable, says a company that lets parents track their kids using GPS technology.

The body of 12-year-old John Fulton was found in a neighbour’s condo two days after he disappeared from his home in Grand Forks. A 42-year-old woman is in police custody.

Leslie Lauren, the vice president of Amber Alert GPS, says the boy could have been found by using one of its tiny wireless tracking devices — which can track a child to within three metres.

“If the GPS was on John at the time it doesn’t go to sleep so his mother would know within 60 seconds where he is and it would have been prevented,” Lauren told ctvbc.ca.

Fulton’s family has publicly criticized the B.C. RCMP for not issuing an Amber Alert after his disappearance — saying the child wouldn’t have run away from home because his autism prevents him from leaving his comfort zone.

Lauren says GPS assists the North American Amber Alert program by making it easier for parents and law authorities to find a child — before the child abduction Amber Alert is issued. In this case, she says, an Amber Alert wouldn’t be needed because of an SOS function that allows parents to listen to what is going on around their child.

“So while they were trying to look for him his parents and the police would have been able to listen to his surroundings without the abductor and John knowing they were listening,” she said.

“We could show police his exact location so they could send an immediate response.”

{more ... full story at The Autism News}