Dubai Police save hundreds of children in emergency rescues

The search and rescue team at the General Department of Transport and Rescue, Dubai Police, completed 4,568 missions this year, including saving 239 children who were trapped inside cars and elevators due to their parents’ negligence or failure to take sufficient preventive measures.

The team also rescued people who suffered sudden health crises while driving or were locked in vehicles following traffic accidents.

The hard mission teams are always prepared to deal with all emergency incidents, 24 hours a day, in full readiness to deal with all types of incidents as fast as possible, Major General Rashid Al Falasi, director of the department, said.

The teams are divided into shifts so that their members are ready at any hour when they receive a report about anyone being involved in an emergency incident, he added, stressing their keenness to quickly provide assistance to those in need and rescue them as quickly as possible because the time factor in accidents is of great importance.

The concerned teams implemented a series of awareness videos via YouTube this year, which included guidelines on how to maintain the safety of children inside cars, homes and elevators as part of the police’s efforts to raise the level of community awareness and reduce accidents resulting from negligence, he said.

Al Falasi warned against behaviours that pose a serious risk to children, primarily leaving them unattended inside vehicles, especially during summer and high temperatures, noting that some of the children who were rescued suffered health and psychological complications, including suffocation and panic attacks.

He explained that search and rescue teams give children top priority in immediate intervention upon receiving reports, given their inability to protect themselves or act appropriately when trapped inside cars, elevators, or homes, stressing that a rapid response in such cases is a crucial factor in saving lives.

The diverse cases that the teams dealt with included children trapped inside elevators and others who were locked inside house doors or stuck inside vehicles, he said.

Reports were received from neighbours who heard children crying after being left alone inside their homes and were prompted to inform the police, who intervened immediately to rescue them in the absence of their parents for various reasons, he added.

'DANGEROUS ACT'

Leaving children unattended is a wrong and dangerous act, especially at young ages, as they may experience severe panic attacks when they feel isolated or unable to leave the place, he said, adding that this would increase the psychological and physical risks to them.

Al Falasi revealed that incidents of children being trapped inside cars took place as a result of the doors being closed on them before a parent enters, with a sudden malfunction preventing the vehicle from responding to the key or opening the doors, stressing the need to ensure that the car did not lock automatically before the child entered it.

He stressed the importance of turning on the air conditioning before putting children in vehicles, especially in summer, given the significantly high temperature inside the car, which could expose the child to serious health complications if they were stuck there.

“Rescue teams deal with each case according to its circumstances. In stable cases, vehicles, no matter old or new, are opened using special tools that do not damage them. However, in critical cases where the child is about to lose consciousness or suffocate, the glass is broken in a safe and deliberate manner that ensures a quick rescue without jeopardising the child’s life,” he said.

He pointed out that some accidents are not caused by negligence, but rather by sudden technical malfunctions such as battery failure or a fault in the car’s systems, which requires everyone to be cautious and take utmost care.

Warning of the dangers of not paying attention to children while using escalators in shopping malls and public facilities, Al Falasi pointed out that serious accidents took place when the edges of abayas or some types of shoes getting caught between the steps of the escalator, leading a child to be pulled and sustain serious injuries.

Some children engage in extremely dangerous behaviours such as placing their hands on the edges of the steps while climbing or using the ladder backwards, which may lead them to fall on the hard steps or get their limbs entrapped and possibly amputated, he said.