The Cuerpo Nacional de Policía had to break a side window of a parked car to get a heat-distressed child out in Ávila on the 18th of July.

The car had been left parked on Calle Virreina María Dávila at 14.18h on a day where the outside temperature was 38 degrees Celsius.

A passerby had phoned 091 to say that there was a parked car with a small child inside and that all the windows were up. The caller said that the toddler was crying and had been doing so for at least 20 minutes.

A few minutes later a police patrol located the car and saw that the child, who was strapped into a child seat, was upset and sweating.

Finding no other way to enter the car, a policeman smashed a side window, freeing the child and immediately gave him water. Almost immediately afterwards a couple, the parents, approached and asked the police what they were doing.

The parents explained that they had driven in from a nearby village to carry out some administrative tasks and that they had decided to leave the child in the car as he had been sleeping.

The police explained to them that they had just committed an act of serious irresponsibility leaving a child in a car with the windows up with the vehicle parked in the sun.

Whilst this was being explained an ambulance arrived and the child was examined and found to be suffering from mild dehydration.

The family was allowed to continue on its way but a report was submitted to the Public Prosecutor for Minors.

Editorial comment: it’s amazing that there are still parents out there who simply don’t get it.

(News: Avila, Castilla Leon, Spain)