Mrs BC Locked Inside Car

[bad company]

Today Mrs BC and I had to call 999 after a motorcyclist came off and landed just behind us:_

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

I have the car set up so it automatically locks when I take the keys a few feet from the car. So I left the car to attend to the motorcyclist while Mrs BC phoned 999. I hadn’t realised that the car had locked with Mrs BC inside until the alarm sounded due to her moving around trying to get out. Apparently none of the door locks or even the horn would operate so she couldn’t communicate with me.

This seems potentially very dangerous. Is there a way out of the locked car or should I deactivate the automatic locking setting?

[miniman]

Our VAG cars show a warning message - they are absolutely designed such that once locked, it’s not possible to open the doors from inside such that if someone breaks a window to gain entry, they still can’t open the doors.

[SteBrown91]

My Ix3 was set to lock/unlock when I approached/walked away. I had it switched on for all of a minute before disabling it. I don’t know how people put up with it constantly locking/unlocking if you walk past it etc.

[Glosphil]

SteBrown91 said:

My Ix3 was set to lock/unlock when I approached/walked away. I had it switched on for all of a minute before disabling it. I don’t know how people put up with it constantly locking/unlocking if you walk past it etc.

You always carry your car key with you, even if not going to the car?

[Sheepshanks]

It's the deadlocks and it's pretty standard across many makes - comes up on forums all the time where people react in the same way as the OP.

Mercedes wouldn't fit them for years as they said they were dangerous but they gave in some years ago. I think not having them affects the car's security rating.

Usually you can turn them off for each use by pressing the remote locking key twice. We had a Honda that didn't deadlock by default - the fob had to be presed twice to deadlock it.

[Pica-Pica]

Glosphil said:

SteBrown91 said:

My Ix3 was set to lock/unlock when I approached/walked away. I had it switched on for all of a minute before disabling it. I don’t know how people put up with it constantly locking/unlocking if you walk past it etc.

You always carry your car key with you, even if not going to the car?

Most people have a house key on the same key-ring, so why not?

[Panamax]

May I suggest a small hammer in the glove-box?

[Pica-Pica]

Panamax said:

May I suggest a small hammer in the glove-box?

You can buy a combined small hammer and seat belt cutter.

[bad company]

Panamax said:

May I suggest a small hammer in the glove-box?

Yes that’s a possible solution but surely there really should be a way to easily exit the car.

[Sheepshanks]

bad company said:

Yes that’s a possible solution but surely there really should be a way to easily exit the car.

That would defeat the whole point of deadlocks.

[skyebear]

I've cable tied a Resqme to our cars' rearview mirrors in the event of needing to escape. £10-ish on Amazon.

[miniman]

I guess the options are that you disable the auto lock when walking away feature, or accept that if you walk away when someone is in the car, they are trapped.

There are plenty of similar examples of what happened to you on various BMW forums and whilst a few replies suggest that pressing the central locking unlock button then pulling the door handle twice will open the door, most say this doesn’t work. You might want to try it.

If you disable the auto lock, you might want to consider how your insurer could react if you suffer a theft having switched off a feature that might have prevented it.

[TGCOTF-dewey]

Could someone provide a detailed step by step set of instructions on how to achieve this, along with typical emergency response times, and exactly what removable items inside a car could be used to effect an escape.

[miniman]

TGCOTF-dewey said:

Could someone provide a detailed step by step set of instructions on how to achieve this, along with typical emergency response times, and exactly what removable items inside a car could be used to effect an escape.

[bad company]

miniman said:

I guess the options are that you disable the auto lock when walking away feature, or accept that if you walk away when someone is in the car, they are trapped.

There are plenty of similar examples of what happened to you on various BMW forums and whilst a few replies suggest that pressing the central locking unlock button then pulling the door handle twice will open the door, most say this doesn’t work. You might want to try it.

If you disable the auto lock, you might want to consider how your insurer could react if you suffer a theft having switched off a feature that might have prevented it.

From memory the auto lock wasn’t set when I bought the car new. I thought it was a good idea so turned it on but it looks like I need to disable it. Yesterday it really added further stress for Mrs BC who was speaking with the emergency services when she found that she was locked in the car.

[E-bmw]

Sometimes I wonder how some people manage to get through life unaided!

ETA.
BTW, that was directed 2 posts up, we must have been writing at the same time.

Edited by E-bmw on Thursday 17th April 11:26

[Wills2]

I find it a very useful feature in fact I've played that joke a few times on the other half

[Pica-Pica]

miniman said:

I guess the options are that you disable the auto lock when walking away feature, or accept that if you walk away when someone is in the car, they are trapped.

There are plenty of similar examples of what happened to you on various BMW forums and whilst a few replies suggest that pressing the central locking unlock button then pulling the door handle twice will open the door, most say this doesn’t work. You might want to try it.

If you disable the auto lock, you might want to consider how your insurer could react if you suffer a theft having switched off a feature that might have prevented it.

The feature is in the standard iDrive menu. Mine is switched off, but I don’t recall ever doing it in 8 years ownership from new. I guess the default is off. I do know that if you don’t open a door within 30 seconds of unlocking, the car re locks. That happens on our Fabia as well.
I see so many cars at supermarkets with dogs in that set off the alarm motion detector as the dog gets restless.