In 2012, AAA reported helping four million individuals who had been locked out of their cars throughout the year. Given that a large number of drivers do not have AAA services, the actual number of individuals who lock themselves out of their car each year is even higher. locksmith agencies like Austin Car Keys stay busy all year responding to emergency locksmith calls and helping individuals to get back in their cars and on the road. In some cases, the prompt services of a locksmith will save the life of a child or pet that is stuck in the car with lockout services.
As tragic and hard to believe as it may be, 30 children died in 2014 of heatstroke from being left in a car unattended. In 2013 that number was 44, and while it is hoped that the amount can still decrease, an average of 38 children have died every year since 1998 from being left in a car and getting heat stroke. From 1998 to 2013, 606 children died in total. Over half of these incidents were as a result of parents or caretakers merely “forgetting” the child in the car, and roughly a third of the deaths were children playing unattended in a vehicle. Another 18 percent of the children were purposefully left in the car by the adult.
Pets are also victims of this senseless and unfortunate death. There are no official statistics relating to the heatstroke deaths of pets left in cars, but estimates are over a hundred each summer. Some of these could also be purposeful, some may be cases of a forgotten pets, and some are as a result of individuals locking their keys in their cars and having no way of unlocking them. Regardless of the situation, far too many pets suffer this slow, painful death every year.
Every single one of these cases may be a tragic and needless death of an innocent child or animal. If you happen to lock your keys in your car while a child is inside on a hot day, you need a car unlock service as quickly as possible to avoid disaster. Austin Car Keys has recently declared their intention to provide free car unlocking services to anyone with a pet or child locked in the car. These services are accessible twenty four hours a day, 7 days a week, and for any car owner living in or close to Austin Texas. “Every year we hear stories of kids getting locked in cars and dying of heatstroke,” says one 919 Locksmith employee. “If we have the ability to avoid wasting the lives of children and pets and we don’t do something regarding it, well that’s simply criminal.”