Toddler helps save man trapped in hot car

With the media being dominated by headlines about the Georgia father who allegedly left his toddler son in a hot car to die, this news is welcome.

It's the story of a toddler who saved an elderly man from a similar fate.

WVLT referred to three-year-old Keith Williams as "little boy," but really, he's a little hero.

"We've had a little problem with this switch opening up," the man said referring to the car.

Luckily for him, 3-year-old Keith knew exactly what to do. Keith went to his pastor, Jack Greene, and led him outside to King.

"He got hot. He was locked in the car," the little boy said.

Bob King got trapped in his car in Tennessee. Temperatures were in the mid-90s. When Keith walked by, the man yelled to him, and little Keith did the rest. Keith's mom told WVLT that she's been talking to her son about the dangers of being in hot cars.

That's evidence that at the very least, tragically, stories about hot car deaths may be spreading awareness.

This week, a Georgia man said that he saved a toddler from a hot car, pulling him out -- and he told WRDW that as a father himself, he was shocked.

"I don't know of anybody in today's day and age that has not heard of one of these recent stories that have occurred locally ... nationally that's been going on, where kids are dying in these cars."

Also, this week in Katy, Texas, where temperatures have reached the 90s, locals told KHOU that they smashed the window of a car to get children out.

"Kids were in there crying. You can understand, it was real hot."

In these two situations, both parents said that they had left their kids in the cars only temporarily. Right now, it seems neither has been charged with anything.

WebMD argues only a few minutes in a hot car can be fatal -- quoting a doctor who says, "There is no safe amount of time to leave children alone in the car."

A North Carolina man drove that point home by locking himself in a car in a video that's gone viral.

"I would never leave my kids in the car like this man."

It's videos like that and stories of little Keith and other good Samaritans who are helping raise awareness.

According to NBC, "More than 36 children die in overheated cars every year in the United States, research shows, adding up to more than 600 deaths since 1998."

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