Kochi: It was a lucky escape for two-and-a-half-year-old Muhammed Sayan as he got locked inside a car for close to two hours. And it was the alertness of a few MVD staff that saved the life of the toddler on Monday. Sayan, a kindergarten student of ‘Time Kids’ at Kakkanad, was picked up by his grandfather, Jasin, after the classes were over at 10.45 am and he then dropped the boy’s mother, a lecturer with the Thrikkakara government college, at her place of work.
They returned to the house at Kakkanad and then the grandfather got a call and he answered it after getting out of the car. By this time, the boy fell fast asleep on the back seat. Jasin, meanwhile, returned to the car and thinking that the boy had gone to the house, again started the vehicle and went out for business purpose. His friend, meanwhile, asked him to come before the deputy transport commissioner office at Kakkanad.
The grandfather parked his car by the side of the road near the DTC office and locked it, unaware of the fact that the boy was still asleep inside the car. He then left with his friend in the latter’s car. It was 1.30 noon by then. At that time, assistant motor vehicle inspector Brighty Emmanuel and driver Biju Mathew came out of the DTC office and began checking the vehicles. They caught a lorry driver for speaking on his mobile phone while driving and asked him to park the vehicle by the side of the DTC entrance.
Biju, who noticed a Honda City car parked there, came near it to see whether there was driver inside. Instead, he saw the child sleeping. They continued their job thinking that the parents had gone somewhere near and would come back soon. However, they smelled a rat when nobody turned up for another half an hour.
“We feared that the child was having difficulty in breathing. We made noise from outside and woke him up, but he was not able to unlock the door from inside. We alerted the police and the Fire Force who arrived at the scene and broke its glasses and saved the child,” said Brighty who led the rescue act.
Sayan was feeling tired initially and was also having fever. But soon he made friends with the MVD staff. “We managed to finally track down the boy’s address using smart tracer and his grandmother rushed to the DTC office. We’re relieved it all ended fine,” the officer said with a smile.
