In a heartbreaking incident in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram district, four young children lost their lives after they accidentally got trapped inside a parked car. The tragedy unfolded on Sunday afternoon when the children, who were playing near a house in a village, climbed into an unattended vehicle and were unable to get out.
According to the police, the car doors were initially unlocked, but it is suspected that the vehicle’s automatic locking system engaged after the children got inside. “It appears the car locked itself once the kids were inside. They couldn’t open the doors from within,” said a police officer investigating the case.
The devastating discovery was made around 6 p.m. by a woman passing by, who noticed the children lying motionless inside the car. Alarmed by what she saw, she immediately alerted the locals and authorities.
Police revealed that the car had been parked on the outskirts of the village for two days, as there was no space near the owner’s house. At the time of the incident, no one was around to notice the children entering the vehicle.
“From our initial assessment, it seems one child may have fainted first, and the others likely panicked. Combined with the intense heat and lack of air, this led to suffocation,” said the officer.
The preliminary investigation also confirmed that the car did not have a child safety lock, but it’s believed the children might have unknowingly activated the central locking system from inside the vehicle.
The car’s owner had recently returned from Visakhapatnam, where he attended his brother’s wedding, and had parked the car in a narrow lane near his home.
Police have since seized the vehicle and plan to send it to the manufacturer for a detailed technical inspection. A case has been registered under Section 304(A) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for causing death due to negligence.
The children’s bodies were returned to their grieving families and later cremated. Among the victims, two were siblings, while the other two belonged to separate families.
