A mother left her one-year-old son alone in the car in Nuremberg when it was over 30 degrees. According to police, firefighters finally broke a window of the car to free the girl. Rescuers were said to have arrived just in time to avoid health damage. Police are now investigating the mother for negligent bodily injury.
Passersby called 911
According to police, the mother wanted to accompany an acquaintance from Nuremberg to the airport on Saturday afternoon. She left the one-year-old in the car while she was there. The car was parked at the airport entrance with the windows closed under the scorching sun. Several passersby noticed this and called 911.
Airport firefighters rescue girl from car
The airport fire department rescued the sweating child. According to police, he had been in the car for about half an hour. During the subsequent investigation, emergency services discovered that they had arrived just in time. Otherwise, it is said, worse health consequences would have been likely. However, the girl did not need to go to the hospital.
The mother explained that she had misjudged the time. In fact, she wanted to be gone for five minutes at most.
Police warn: Never leave children in the car
The police are using the case as an opportunity to issue an urgent warning: children should not be left in the car during hot weather, even for a few minutes. In high temperatures, the body no longer receives enough oxygen. This is particularly dangerous for children. The heart and circulatory system can fail within a very short space of time and there is a risk of death from heat – even a slightly open window cannot change that.
Cars heat up quickly
It can become dangerous in a closed car after just ten minutes. At an outside temperature of 30 degrees, the internal temperature of a parked car can rise to 46 degrees within half an hour – then it becomes critical for children and there is a risk of fatal danger (dark red areas on the graph).
With an outside temperature of “only” 20 degrees, this critical value is reached within an hour. US researchers investigated this and developed a table that shows how the temperature inside a car increases depending on the temperature outside.