‘RIP little one’: Heartache after Arikh Hasan, 3, dies in hot car

Witnesses have described the moment Arikh Hasan was pulled from a hot car as a Glenfield family mourns their little boy. The NRMA today revealed grim details over the number of kids rescued from dangerously overheated vehicles last month.

It was a normal morning school run for Newaz Hasan.

On Thursday he drove his older son and dropped him off to classes, in the first week of the school year. His younger son Arikh was in the back seat. Then, normally, it would be time to take three-year-old Arikh to daycare.

Instead, under a blue sky and as temperatures climbed, he parked his dark-coloured Toyota Corolla on Railway Pde in Glenfield.

Arikh’s body was found slumped in the back seat around 3pm after outside temperatures had swelled to 34C.

A friend of Mr Hasan said when the grim discovery was made on Railway Pde, the father was crying “I just forgot”.

Arikh Hasan, 3 years old, died after being left in a car on Railway Parade Glenfield, in Sydney. Picture Facebook

Newaz Hasan is comforted at the scene. Picture: TNV

Witnesses to the death of the three-year-old say they are left heartbroken, with one suffering terrifying nightmares.

The back window was smashed in as Mr Hasan and passers-by desperately tried to pull the boy from the hot car.

For liquor shop worker Sandeep Shresdha, the sight of Arikh’s body being dragged onto the steaming concrete and then his shop gave him nightmares.

“I was working out the back, and a customer came in to get me, and it was a lot of people crying,” he said.

“The concrete was so hot and people brought him in (to the bottle shop)”

“I can’t sleep, it’s the same recurring theme. I see the child there and I can’t do anything.

“It was so horrible.”

A young boy lays flowers with his dad at the scene on Railway Parade, Glenfield. Picture John Grainger

A message left at the scene of the tragedy on Friday. Picture John Grainger

Children left flowers and firelights the scene. Picture John Grainger

Other eyewitnesses said Mr Hasan was crying and screaming in anguish as NSW Police and NSW Ambulance officers tried in vain to revive the boy.

He died at the scene.

“The dad was doing CPR on the child and it seemed like he was incredibly distressed … the child was completely blue,” local Warren Blackwell said.

“I will never get that image out of my head ever again in my life.

The tragedy has rocked the Glenfield Public School community, just steps away from where the horrible discovery was made.

Parents taking their children to school said they were struggling to explain to their own children how this could have happened.

A message tied to the electricity poll revealed the heartbreak the small community was suffering.

“Taken too soon. You will be missed,” read the message along with a child’s dinosaur toy.

It was one of many toys one of many placed at the electricity pole.

“Rest in peace little one. See you one day.”

A woman tells of the distressing scene. Picture: TNV

The car where the little boy was found. Picture: TNV

Police in Railway Parade in Glenfield. Must Credit: TNV

Mr Hasan spent Thursday night in police custody but was allowed to return home without charge as police try and piece together the tragedy.

The tragedy came as the number of children rescued from hot cars last month was the highest in five years and a peak road safety group warning the figures are getting worse.

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury revealed the road safety organisation had rescued 213 children from hot cars across NSW and the ACT in January 2023 – the highest number in five years.

But a more disturbing portrait emerged from the yearly statistics for 2022, with Mr Khoury saying 4267 children and pets (1882 children alone) were locked in cars that year.

That figure is the highest in a decade, he said.

“It’s highly dangerous all year round, regardless of the weather,” Mr Khoury said.

“But it’s particularly dangerous during Australian summers.”

Mr Khoury explained temperatures in cars doubled when compared with outside temperatures, meaning figures around the high 30s or 40s could reach “cooking temperatures” inside vehicles.

“It doesn’t take long for children to become severely dehydrated before organ failure sets in, followed by potentially catastrophic consequences.”

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