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Expert Voices - Pop-A-Lock EDU Program
You should never leave a child in an unattended vehicle, even if you only intend to be a few minutes. What should be a quick run in to pay for gas or drop off dry cleaning can quickly turn into a tragedy. Distractions can easily occur and turn a two-minute run into the dry cleaners into ten minutes. Motor vehicles pose several dangers to unattended children including:
The inside of a vehicle can reach dangerously hot temperatures within a matter of minutes even on days when the temperature outside is mild. Cracking or opening the windows before running in does little to prevent the temperature from rising and provides a false sense of safety for parents. Keep in mind that a child’s body is not able to regulate temperature as well as an adult’s, which means that a child’s core body temperature may increase 3 to 5 times faster than adults. A child will begin to experience signs of heat exhaustion when the temperature is above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and hyperthermia or heat stroke when it rises above 105. During a summer day or when a car is parked in direct sunlight, the inside of a car can reach temperatures exceeding 130 degrees in as little as 15 minutes. It is also quite dangerous to leave a child in a car with the engine running and the air conditioning on. While it may seem that leaving the car on is a solution to keeping the child cool while you run out for a minute, the risk of the child unintentionally setting the car into drive or activating the power windows and sustaining injuries is far too high to take the risk. While children may be left intentionally in the car for quick runs into stores and post offices, children are also left in vehicles by parents unintentionally. Parents most commonly forget children in cars when there is a change in a regular daily routine or when a parent is under an unusual amount of stress.
To guarantee that your children remain safe:
In the event that your child is accidentally locked in a car, you need to get the child out as quickly and safely as possible. Pop-A-Lock Locksmith offers an Emergency Door Unlocking (EDU) Program as a free community service. Having been founded by law enforcement officers, Pop-A-Lock is dedicated to saving the lives of children who are accidentally locked in vehicles. If you find yourself in a situation where a child is locked in your car, FIRST call 911 or your local emergency number. In addition, you can call your local Pop-A-Lock location to notify them of your emergency situation. They will quickly dispatch the Pop-A-Lock employee who is nearest your location to unlock the vehicle at no cost to you. Since the implementation of this program as a free community service, Pop-A-Lock has successfully rescued hundreds of thousands of children from locked vehicles.
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