UAE | Crime
Police rescue four children locked in cars during holidays
The police had to rescue a number of children locked and forgotten in their cars by their parents during the Eid holidays, a senior officer said.
- By Alia Al Theeb, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:29 October 11, 2008
- Image Credit: Illustration by Luis Vazquez/Gulf News
Dubai: The police had to rescue a number of children locked and forgotten in their cars by their parents during the Eid holidays, a senior officer said.
"We had to rescue four children locked up in cars, which is a strange occurrence in such a short time," said Major Ahmad Atiq Bu Reqaibah, Deputy Director of Dubai Police Rescue Department.
"The keys were still inside," he added. "We had to use special equipment and open the doors."
The police officer advised parents to pay more attention to their children, specially during the holidays when everyone is busy having a good time.
The Civil Defence also had to deal with a couple of such cases. A two-year-old child had accidently locked himself in his parent's bedroom and could not open the door. It took the Civil Defence several hours to get the door open as the child cried on the other side. The mother hugged her child and vowed to be careful in the future.
"Homes are dangerous places for children if parents don't keep an eye on them," says Major General Rashid Thani Al Matroushi, Director of Dubai Civil Defence. He warned parents that children can also get trapped in elevators if they play with the lift buttons.
In one of the incidents, civil defence teams had to wait for a little girl's father for half an hour to carry out the rescue operation. The girl had locked herself up in a room and was sitting behind the door crying and refused to move from behind the door. Rescue teams did not have a choice, but to rescue her from the window.
Operations: 28 incidents in 6 months
Civil Defence teams carried out 28 rescue operations of trapped children in the first six months of this year.
- Keep an eye on your children all the time
- You are responsible for your child
- Keep keys out of reach of children
- Do not leave children alone in rooms
- Windows and balcony doors must be closed
- Do not leave children in cars and lock them in while you shop
- Lack of oxygen could lead to partial damage of the brain
- The emergency number for civil defence is 997
Do you leave children unattended in cars or at home? What measures do you take to ensure their safety? Have you heard of a case where children have been left trapped in cars or at home? Fill in the form bellow to send your comments.
Your comments
People with such little common sense should not be having children. Its scary that a mother or father has to be told to not leave (forget) their children locked in a car "because of having a good time during Eid" or to keep an eye on their children.
Danya
Dubai,UAE
Posted: October 12, 2008, 11:46
About half of the child related accidents at home occur because about half of UAE's kids are home alone after school, since both parents are working. Reason - it is illegal to hire housemaids. What is wrong if I want to hire a housemaid for two months? Let it be registered in the Labour Dept for records, for an admin fee of say 100 Dhs per month! Instead of saying "NO NO" to everything,they should find a way out for the safety of our children.
Jayan
Dubai,UAE
Posted: October 12, 2008, 11:12
How can you forget your child in the car !!!!! I will never understand this. Door keys should be kept away so small kids don't get the chance to lock up themselves ... Unfortunately, these cases are more common than they should be, sometimes even causing the death of the child.
Susan
Dubai,UAE
Posted: October 12, 2008, 08:45
I never leave my children unattended in car. If by any chance We left our children alone in the house for a maximum period of half an hour(which happened 2 or 3 times in 15 years) we told them not to move outside TV lounge just sit and watch TV. We ensured before leaving that windows are locked and Gas is closed. We kept on calling them on phone if every thing is OK.
Ghoofran
Dubai,UAE
Posted: October 12, 2008, 07:44
Leaving a child alone in the car is the craziest thing to do as parents unless they don't love their child. Once there was a family left their 1 year old child in the car locked at the school parking area under the hot sun. Thankfully managed to save the child with the help from school authorities. There are just some parents who are not responsible.
Bobby
Dubai,UAE
Posted: October 12, 2008, 07:16
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