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Driving around, you'll see all sorts of things on cars, from funny bumper stickers to eyelashes on headlights, and of course, the classic "Baby On Board" sign in the window. Most people think the sign is a cute warning to other drivers that the person behind the wheel might be slightly distracted because of their precious cargo, but it turns out that there is a much darker reason for the yellow, diamond-shaped sign.
Car expert @PentagramMotorSport shared the true purpose of the sign on TikTok, explaining, "This is a sign to the emergency services. If they find your car crashed, passed out in the car, or rolled down a bank, this is a sign to say they need to stay at the scene to look and find the baby that was onboard. That's the purpose of this sign."
In fact, if you have one of the signs in your car, it's recommended that you remove it when you aren't driving with a baby in the car since, if god forbid, you get into an accident, emergency services might spend time and energy looking for a baby that was never in the vehicle.
Those in the emergency services commented on the post, confirming the sign's purpose and writing things like, "Paramedic here, genuinely makes my heart sink seeing these badges at [car accidents] especially when you're frantically searching for a missing baby only for it to turn up perfectly fine at home with someone else." Another stated, "As a fireman it's crazy how many people don't know this. Been at awful scenes where we've been crawling through wreckage only to get a phone call from the hospital to say the father's turned up with the baby to see the victim. Very dangerous."
There is no word though if that was the initial reason for the sign. It was popularized by former real estate investor Michael Lerner in 1984 after he noticed fellow drivers were impatient with him as he drove his 18-month-old nephew for the first time, and he wanted a sign to keep them both safe. He found the "Baby On Board" sign, created by Patricia and Helen Bradley of Massachusetts, and with them, co-founded the company Safety 1st. He used contacts in the retail industry to sell the sign and they went on to sell a whopping 10,000 of them in their first month of business.