Infant, 1, Locks Herself In Hot Car, Nutley Cops Smash Window

Nutley, NJ – A Nutley child needed to be rescued from a hot car after accidentally locking herself inside during a hot summer day last week, police said.

According to the Nutley Police Department, the incident took place on July 14 at a parking lot near Centre Street and Ravine Avenue. When an officer arrived on the scene, they found that a one-year-old girl had accidentally pressed the lock button in the car while her parent was outside the vehicle.

The officer tried several times to unlock the door using specialized tools with no success, authorities said.

Eventually, after noticing that the child was becoming “stressed from the heat,” the officer broke the car’s window and removed the infant, authorities stated.

Emergency responders arrived on the scene to evaluate the child, who appeared to be uninjured, police said.

“On average, 37 children die [yearly] from heat-related deaths after being trapped inside vehicles,” KidsandCars.org states. “Even the best of parents or caregivers can unknowingly leave a sleeping baby in a car… the end result can be injury or even death. Vehicular heat stroke tragedies change the lives of parents, families, and communities forever.”

“On a day that is just 72 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature [inside a car] can increase by 30 to 40 degrees in an hour,” Christopher Haines, DO, director of pediatric emergency medicine at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia told Web MD. “Seventy percent of this increase occurs the first 30 minutes.”

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Photo: Brian Snelson, Flickr Commons