Narre Warren CFA captain Noel Collins warns of the dangers of locking a child in the car.By Sarah Schwager
LOCAL emergency authorities have banded together this summer to warn people of the risks of leaving children in the car after two recent incidents in Narre Warren.
Cranbourne Police Acting Senior Sergeant Phil Dagleish said it was an offence to leave a child unattended.
“If kids are left in the car even for a few minutes, parents are leaving themselves open to charges,” Act Sen Sgt Dagleish said.
“Also the Department of Human Services has to be notified if ever the child is at risk, and being left unsupervised or locked in a car would fall into that category.”
But he said each incident would be judged on a case by case basis.
In the past year, RACV patrols were called out 1352 times to rescue people locked in cars, more than three times a day on average.
RACV chief engineer, vehicles, Michael Case, said people locked in cars during the summer period were at great risk of suffering or even dying due to heat stroke or dehydration.
“The interior temperature of a car can rise by as much as 40 degrees in just 15 minutes,” Mr Case said.
“Even dashing into the shops is dangerous.
“Leaving a window open a few centimetres won’t help reduce a car’s interior heat by much and temperatures can reach a lethal 60 degrees very quickly.”
Over Christmas, there were two incidents in Narre Warren where children were accidentally locked in cars.
Narre Warren Country Fire Authority (CFA) captain Noel Collins said in one incident a parent left the car keys on the seat while placing the child in the safety seat.
In another, the child grabbed hold of the keys and after the parent closed the door the central locking system was activated.
Capt Collins said one parent waited 20 minutes before calling 000, passing fluids through a partially open window in the meantime.
He said emergency services should be contacted straight away in case parents were not successful in getting their child out of the car.
“On hot days, it is vital that access is gained as soon as possible,” Capt Collins said.
State Emergency Services (SES) Pakenham unit controller Andrew Graham said his crew attended the Narre Warren incidents.
“Thankfully, they were accidental and the outcome was okay,” Mr Graham said.
“For the people who do it purposely, who go into a store for five minutes which turns into 10 or 20 minutes, their kids will be dead.”
Kidsafe, the Child Accident Prevention Foundation of Australia, Victoria manager Anne Murphy urged parents to always take their children out of the car with them, even if it was only for a small errand.
She said while there had been only a few reported incidents over the past couple of weeks, parents returning to work while their children were still on holidays tended to be a bit more stressed and to get a bit lazy.
“Don’t use the car as a babysitter,” Ms Murphy said.
