A man in Texas was caught on camera breaking a car's windshield to save his baby who was trapped inside the hot vehicle.
The intense video captures the parents' desperate actions as they smash the glass to free the child who was left alone in the scorching hot car in Harlingen, southern Texas on Wednesday (19 July).
Unfortunately, the child was left inside the car because the family unintentionally left the keys inside the vehicle, which was parked outside a H-E-B store.
A crowd gathered around a vehicle as a passerby filmed the intense scene where people worked together to rescue a crying baby locked inside the scorching car. They used various objects to break the windshield until a man reached in and pulled the baby out through the shattered glass.
According to a report from Fox News, the TikToker who filmed the rescue revealed that the video didn't capture a woman who climbed into the car through the broken front windshield to reach the baby and hand the child to the man.
It remains uncertain how long the baby was trapped inside the car before the heroic rescue took place.
Sgt. Larry Moore from the Harlingen Police Department confirmed that the parents accidentally locked their baby in the car with the keys at around 10:30 am on Wednesday. The police were called once the baby was freed, and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) arrived to check on the baby, who was thankfully unharmed. No charges are expected to be filed.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) warns that a car's temperature can rise by 20 degrees in just 10 minutes. On the day of the incident, the heat index was over 100 degrees.
Highway safety officials emphasize that children should never be left alone in a car, even with the windows down or the air conditioning turned on.
Tragically, hot car-related child deaths are increasing, with the NHTSA reporting that around 40 children die from heatstroke each year, approximately one child every 10 days, either because they were left or got trapped inside a hot car.
Over half of child hot car deaths, about 53%, occur due to someone forgetting a child inside a car. Among these tragic incidents, 54% of the victims are children under the age of two.
If you come across children locked inside a vehicle, US Police advise calling 911 immediately. In hot weather, it's crucial to act swiftly as children can become sick rapidly when trapped in a hot car.
Dr. Brian Birch, a pediatrician at St. Luke's Children's Hospital, further elaborated on the matter: "A child's core temperature can increase three-to-five-times faster than that of an adult. That increase in temperature can cause permanent brain or neurological injury, or even death, in just a very short time."
