COMSTOCK PARK, Mich. — A young girl is expected to be OK after emergency responders smashed a window to pull the girl from a hot vehicle parked outside a Michigan Wal-Mart.
FOX 17 reports the Kent County Sheriff’s Office responded to a Wal-Mart in Comstock Park, Michigan around 6:20 p.m. local time Saturday.
Responders had to break a car window in order to get to the young girl, who had been left inside the vehicle. It’s not clear how long the girl had been in the vehicle or whether police had been able to locate her parents. A tweet from FOX 17’s Clayton Cummins shows crews on scene.
The website noheatstroke.org, operated by a professor of climate science at San Jose State University, states 24 children died after being left in hot cars in 2015, and so far seven children have died in hot vehicles in 2016. A 2-year-old girl died in Mississippi May 11 after being left in an SUV.
The website states that while the outside temperature may be 80 degrees, the vehicle can be 123 degrees or more within an hour. Last year,police in West Valley City offered a visual demonstration of just how quickly those temperatures can rise inside a vehicle.
The website offers a list of safety tips and stresses that children should never be left unattended in vehicles, "not even for a minute", and that anyone who sees a child inside a hot car should not hesitate to call 911.
