In a tragic accident, a four-year-old and a seven-year-old from Kuladeepa mangalam in Tamil Nadu’s Kallakurichi district passed away on Thursday while playing inside a parked car. The young girls, Vanitha (4) and Raji (7) who were neighbours, were playing inside a parked Maruti Swift when it locked on its own, trapping the two.
Speaking to TNM, a police officer from Manalurpettai police station said, “From what we have been able to gather, they were used to playing in the car earlier as well. The owner of the car had not used it in about 1.5 years due to some fault in it.” The car belonged to Raja who lived on the same street.
The children were stuck inside the car for about two hours and died due to lack of oxygen supply. According to reports, it is being speculated that the car’s child-lock mechanism could have automatically turned on, trapping them inside. Moreover, since the windows were closed, it cut them off from fresh supply of oxygen and also made it difficult for their voices to be heard outside.
Child-lock is a safety mechanism provided in cars to ensure that a child seated inside the car does not open it accidentally. When the child-lock is on, the car can only be opened from the outside. In this case, the safety mechanism could have turned out to be a death trap for the two children.
Worried over the girls, who went out to play in the afternoon, not returning home even after a long time, the family members and neighbours ventured out searching for them. After a while, the search party found the girls lying unconscious inside the car.
It was about 5 pm on Thursday when the girls were rushed to Tirukovilur government hospital, not far away from their village where they were declared brought dead. Manalurpettai police have filed a complaint and are currently investigating the case.