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Baby Rescued From Hot Car In Texas After Crowd Smashes Windshield In Harrowing Viral Video
A video of a trapped baby being rescued from an airtight parked car on a scorching day in Texas has gone viral.
According to Fox News, a South Texas family accidentally locked their keys inside the vehicle along with the infant left inside at a parking lot of an H-E-B grocery store in Harlingen.
Luckily, willing bystanders took action and were able to access the child from the vehicle by smashing through the windshield.
The temperature that day was reportedly over 100 degrees.
In the rescue clip, a man was seen pounding repeatedly on the car's windshield with a crowbar.
Another good samaritan wearing a T-shirt with a horizontal stripe across the back of the shoulders broke apart the glass with the claw of a large hammer and reached into the opening of the shattered windshield.
The footage cut to him retrieving the child after someone, reportedly a woman, got into the vehicle and passed the crying baby through from inside.
You can watch a clip shared by KLTV 7 here.
WATCH: Windshield smashed to rescue baby from hot car at South Texas HEByoutu.be
People breathed a huge sigh of relief.
But while the active bystanders were to be commended, their rescue tactics were questioned despite good intentions.
One Twitter user explained why smashing through the windshield may have been the better option.
The news outlet indicated it was unclear how long the baby was trapped inside the vehicle.
Janette Fennell, founder and president of the advocacy group Kids and Car Safety, pointed out that it can take as little as ten minutes after the car is shut off for the temperature inside to increase by 20 degrees.
Deaths typically occur when there's an abrupt change of routine or miscommunication between parents or caregivers about who is left in charge of a child.
This is why parents or caregivers should never run into a store or gas station and leave a child inside the car thinking it'll only be a minute.
Said Fennell:
"The truth is it's never just a minute."
"What if there's a long line? What if there's a technical difficulty with a pump?"
"There's just no way that it's safe to do so."
Another startling statistic indicated that a child's body temperature can rise three to five times faster than adults.
USA Today reported that 14 children have died so far this year after being inadvertently left inside cars, bringing the total to 1,000 related deaths during the past three decades.