Gregory Robinson
A man was filmed smashing a windshield to rescue his baby trapped inside a hot car.
The tense footage shows the parents from Texas desperately smashing the glass to free the child who was left inside the scorching hot vehicle in Harlingen, southern Texas on Wednesday (19 July).
The child was left in the car when the family accidentally left the keys inside the vehicle, which was parked outside a H-E-B.
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A passerby filmed as a crowd gathered around the vehicle to get the baby out of the car. Members of the public can be seen working together to smash the windshield with different objects before a man reaches inside and pulls the baby out through the broken windshield.
The TikToker who filmed the miraculous rescue said what was not seen in the video was the moment a woman climbed into the car through the broken front windshield to reach the baby and hand the child to the man, Fox News reports.
It is unclear how long the child was in the car before they were rescued.
Sgt. Larry Moore with 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 after the baby was rescued. EMS arrived at the scene and checked on the baby, who was fine. No charges are expected.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says a car’s temperature can rise 20 degrees in just 10 minutes. On the day the child was found trapped in the car last week, the head index was more than 100 degrees.
Highway safety officials say children should never be left alone in a car, even if the windows are rolled down or the air condition has been turned on.
Tragically, child hot car deaths are on the rise and the NHTSA says around 40 children a year - or around one child every 10 days - die from heatstroke, because they were either left or became trapped inside a hot car.
The majority of child hot car deaths — 53% — happen because someone forgets a child in a car. More than half of the deaths - 54% - are children under the age of two.
US Police guidance for anyone who sees children locked inside a vehicle is to call 911. It's very easy for children to become ill quickly when trapped inside a hot vehicle, especially on hot days.
St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital paediatrician Dr. Brian Birch explained: "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."