In a harrowing rescue, Flagler County Sheriff’s Deputy Christian Harrison saved a 1-year-old girl trapped inside a hot car at a Palm Coast Walmart. The incident, captured on body camera footage, highlights the dangers of leaving children in parked vehicles.
Recently, Deputy Harrison was heading to another call when he received an alert about a child locked in a car. “[The parents] accidentally locked the child in the vehicle that wasn’t running,” Harrison said. “So at that point, I check all the door handles just to confirm that all the doors are locked and the vehicle is confirmed to not be running.”
This was the first hot car incident where Harrison faced a “legitimate life or death situation.” With the fire department still five minutes away, he knew he had to act quickly. Observing the child sweating and in distress, Harrison decided to break the window. A man and a woman had arrived and explained that they had locked the keys in the car.
A police officer breaks a window of a locked car to rescue a child who had been accidentally locked in during a hot day. Photo by Flagler County Police Department.
Although the woman protested, saying “no no no” and asking if there was a tool to open the car without damage, Harrison insisted. “I’m like, ‘Okay, so it’s obviously too hot. It’s been 10 minutes, we have to act now,'” he recounted.
I don’t think she understood how hot a car can get in that amount of time. Even if it doesn’t feel that hot outside.”
Harrison retrieved a tool from his patrol car, shattered the window, and cleared the glass with his baton. The girl was then rescued and assessed by the Palm Coast Fire Department, which determined she was okay despite the extreme heat.
Sheriff Rick Staly praised Deputy Harrison’s quick thinking. “He knew exactly what he needed to do,” Staly said. “Florida is a very hot state. It was about 80-some-odd degrees that day. And 10 minutes in a car can easily raise the inside temperature to 100 degrees. Another 10 minutes, about 110.”
A police officer was able to open a locked car to rescue a child who had been accidentally locked in during a hot day. Photo by Flagler County Police Department.
Staly, with nearly 50 years in law enforcement, noted that Flagler County hasn’t had any children die from a hot car. However, the statistics are grim. According to NoHeatStroke.org, an average of 37 children under 14 die each year in hot cars, and all of these deaths are preventable. The organization has recorded 969 pediatric vehicular heatstroke deaths since 1998.
“You got to rescue a child quickly because they can get dehydrated and then go into heat exhaustion and then potentially die,” Staly emphasized. “You don’t have time to wait. You got to act right away.” For a look at the heroic actions of the police officer, watch below.
