New Law Shields Good Samaritans From Lawsuits During Rescues

As I'm sitting here writing this, our predicted high temperature for today is going to be 101 degrees. If your car is sitting out in the sun for 15 Minutes, the interior temperature will rise to approximately 119.9 degrees and that's just 15 minutes. The temperature inside a parked car with the windows rolled up will rise approximately 1.7 degrees per minute. 

So now imagine yourself in the parking lot and you're walking to the store, you see a small animal or a child sitting in a car with rolled up windows, the vehicle is locked, and the motor is not running, and it's 101° outside.  

What do you do?  

You can call 911 for help and then wait as the temperatures continue to rise inside the vehicle until the police arrive, or you can do what some good Samaritans do. You actually break into the vehicle so you can get the small child or the pet out of that broiling inferno of a car. 

The problem comes if there's damage to the vehicle. Who's liable? Who pays for the cost of repairing the vehicle? A new Washington state law takes care of that problem. 

According to axios.com,
‘A new Washington state law will shield people from lawsuits if they break into a car to rescue a child or animal in danger.
Good Samaritans who act to save someone from a hot or freezing vehicle in Washington generally won't be liable for property damage, such as broken windows, once the law takes effect July 27.’ 

The tragedy is that since 1998, over 1000 children have died from heat stroke in cars and the biggest problem is bystanders who see something like this happening and are afraid to take action because they feel they'll get into trouble for opening the vehicle. 

Here's how the law works. 

If you see a child or a pet locked in a car unattended, the first thing you do is call 911. You let them know what you're going to do and then the important thing is that you cannot leave the scene until the police arrive. The new law will go into effect on July 27th. 

Just a little side note. If the vehicle happens to be a Tesla, you might want to check and see if the air conditioning is running before you go breaking that window. Tesla offers a feature called “Dog Mode” which maintains the interior temperature of the parked car at 70°.
Rescuing kids or pets from cars will soon be shielded by Washington state law - Axios Seattle
New technology aims to prevent child deaths in hot cars
HB 1046 Washington State Legislature
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