Toddlers In Hot Car Saved At Supermarket After Doctor Parent Left Them

Two toddlers were rescued from a hot car in a supermarket in southeast England’s Reigate, Surrey, leading to an investigation into their doctor parent who left them in the scorching heat. People near the Morrison’s store rushed to save the children, aged one and two, by managing to force open one of the doors.

The Reigate and Banstead neighborhood policing team of Surrey Police posted about the incident on their Facebook page urging people not to leave kids in hot cars. 

“At about midday today in Morrison’s car park in #Reigate we were called following concerns for two children found in a car alone,” the post read. “Thankfully members of the public acted fast and managed to open the doors and remove the two children, giving them water and cooling them down. The children were only one and two years old!”

“Whilst we hope this can be considered a one off incident it doesn’t distract from the fact that the potential risk is as serious as they come. The outcome of this incident could have been much much worse had action not have been taken,” the post added. “This coupled with the fact that the ‘parent’ was a doctor and the act of leaving pets and children in hot vehicles is all over the public domain in the media etc., it is worrying that this incident occurred in the first place.”

Thousands of people reacted with anger over the parent’s carelessness of leaving the children in the car. 

“Can people not leave children alone in cars regardless of the temperature. They need to be supervised. Being locked in a car isn’t safe. Why are people so stupid?” Amanda Inglis commented. While another user Jacqueline Burrell wrote: “Outrageous, no words can describe how foolish parents, people who are in charge of caring for our children and animals can be so foolish. As for the doctor what can I say?”

This is not the first such case of toddlers being left in hot cars. There have been several instances when young children died after being left behind in closed vehicles in high temperatures.

Late last month, a British woman saved a 3-month-old baby from a hot car after a security guard refused to help her, over fears that he might lose his job. There was no sign of the driver who had left the baby in the hot car, prompting an investigation into the case to determine what happened.

Hot car deaths have become a subject of concern in countries with high temperature. According to child safety organization Kids and Cars, 87 percent of children who died from vehicular heatstroke in the United States were aged three and younger. Nearly 55 percent of heatstroke deaths in cars involved children aged one and younger. The organization also noted that a child’s body overheats three to five time faster than an adult body.

This is a representational image showing vehicles parked in front of a Tesco store in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, July 14, 2007. Photo: REUTERS/Mark Warner