Desperate Parents Break Window After Baby Trapped Inside Failed Ford Mach-E

Image via Ford

A Ford Mach-E owner took to social media to share the story of how his baby was trapped inside the EV after it suddenly failed, leaving him with no choice but to break a window to get his son out. While some might think this is just alarmist, we’ve seen similar situations before and the reason the man says was cited by a dealer for the failure is also something we’ve seen fail on many electric cars.

The city of Boston spends almost half a million dollars on new Ford Mach-E EVs.

According to the man, who posted about his story on Threads, his wife parked the Mach-E at a public charger on January 2. Even though the vehicle had a 25 percent charge, when she tried opening the door to get her son out the locks stopped working.

The key fob and both parent’s phones wouldn’t actuate the locks, either. With no option to use a blade key in such a situation, something we’ve though is a bad idea, the mother called AAA, Ford, and 911 for help.

The AAA tow truck driver also couldn’t open the Ford Mach-E with his tools, including “after jumping the front wires.” First responders hadn’t showed up and fearing the hot day would pose a danger to the baby, the father broke one of the windows to get inside.

After the crossover was towed to a local dealer, it was determined the 12v battery used to power accessories had failed without warning. We’ve heard of this happening on a number of EVs. However, to open a Mach-E when the battery dies requires you to manually open the frunk using those front wires hidden under the front bumper cover.

Once you have the frunk open, you can then jump the 12v battery. In this case, jumping the front wires didn’t open the frunk, so jumping the auxiliary battery wasn’t an option. To us it seems a little ridiculous that you have to do two jumps to unlock the doors on the EV. Wouldn’t including a blade key and manual lock be easier and make more sense? What if the Ford were in a front-end collision and the damage didn’t allow for that regular procedure?

It seems in those cases where the jumping and jumping again isn’t an option, breaking the window is the only solution to get into the Mach-E. But the owner in this situation learned from the dealer the extended warranty wouldn’t cover that, because of course it wouldn’t.

When automakers decide to ditch old, tried and proven designs for flashy new tech, sometimes they get a little too confident in their innovations, Having old systems as backups, like a blade key, seems wise. But wisdom has left far too many designing vehicles these days.

Image via Ford

By Steven Symes

Steven Symes is an accomplished automotive journalist with a passion for all things related to cars. His extensive knowledge and love for the automotive world shine through in his writing, which covers a diverse range of topics.

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