Should You Be Able to Break Car Window If a Baby’s Locked In?

As temperatures warm up, we see stories of animals and children being left in hot cars - many of them dying.

Even though it may be your first reaction -- your gut instinct, breaking that window open to save the child or pet is still illegal.

Regardless of whether you're trying to save an animal or not, it is still illegal to do that."

That's according to Lt. Aaron Clem of the Kennewick Police Department.

KPD rescued a dog from a hot car in the Winco parking lot this week. Officers were able to get into the car because the window was cracked open. Lt. Clem says cracking your window doesn't make a difference. It's still gonna heat up.

I was driving my daughter home from the park this weekend. It was so hot when we got her in the car I was worried for her WITH the windows down and AC running on the way home.

The general consensus is that despite the consequences, people will break that window to save a life. Would you? There's only one U.S. state that protects you if you break a window to get that child or dog to safety: It's Tennessee. One state. Come on! (It is the "volunteer" state after all.)

What do you think? If you were presented with a situation where a child or dog is locked in a hot car, what would you do?

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