As Australia is set to experience one of the hottest summers on record, people are being reminded not to leave their children or pets inside cars.
The warning comes after police rescued a miniature dachshund from an overheated vehicle on the Gold Coast.
Duppy spent at least an hour inside a Volkswagen in 27-degree heat at Coolangatta today.
The ordeal was caught on camera as police worked to free her.
“Hey buddy, you OK? Come here,” an officer can be heard saying, before Duppy was freed from the vehicle and given water.
A 38-year-old Tweed man was charged.
“At no stage leave your child or your animals in your car at any time unattended,” said Mark Boswell from the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ)
In the past year, the RACQ responded to nearly 2000 lock-in emergencies.
Between September last year and October this year, RACQ had 799 callouts for children locked in cars, and 776 for animals locked in cars.
That’s an average of two children and two animals each day.
The regions that saw the most hot car-related emergencies were Brisbane, which recorded 350 incidents, and the Gold Coast, which recorded 220.
The Sunshine Coast clocked 164 incidents while Moreton Bay saw 176.
After 10 minutes, the temperature inside a car can increase by 20 degrees.
In some instances, temperatures inside cars can be up to 40 degrees hotter than outside. In Queensland heat that can be lethal.
”Anyone in a vehicle, temperatures start to scale very, very quickly, it can be dire, life-threatening,” Boswell said.
“Typically what we find is people have their child or their animal in their vehicle, and they just decide to nip in and get a bottle milk or some chewing gum, ‘I’ll be two minutes’.
“Two minutes can start a chain reaction, where that child or animal plays with the keys and you are helpless.”
