Wodonga police will break your car window if a child is in danger

Sergeant Mick Savage said parents needed to think about the danger they were putting their children if they left them unsupervised in their car especially as the mercury started to soar in the summer months.

“The police response is we'll smash the window or whatever we need to do to ensure the safety of the child … and there will be financial hardship coming their way with the need of a new window,” he said.

Sergeant Savage’s comments were in response to statistics released by Ambulance Victoria revealing a 23 per cent statewide increase in call outs for children under 13 years of age locked in cars from September 1, 2014, to August 31 this year.

Forty per cent of all calls were in the hot months between December and March.

Out of the 1433 total incidents recorded, seven were in Wodonga, four in Wangaratta, three in Benalla and one each in Beechworth and Rutherglen.

However, Sergeant Savage said people rang them about once a week about a child or dog left in a car, only the vehicles were not always there when they arrived.

“People need to use common sense, I’ve got a border collie and I’ll leave the windows down and a bit of water for her,” he said. “Most people are just naive to the fact what they're doing is potentially deadly, they don't do it thinking their kid is going to be sick.”

According to Ambulance Victoria, on a 29-degree day the temperature inside a car could reach 44 degrees in 10 minutes and continue to rise after that.

Ambulance Victoria emergency management director Paul Holman said three children had died in recent years after being left in cars on hot days.

“Young children can’t regulate their body temperature like we can,” he said. “That puts them at significant risk and being left in a car can quickly become life threatening.”

People who leave children unattended in cars can face a $3690 fine or jail time.