Elderly Couple Forgot Their Keys When They Sat Inside Their Car — Why They Almost Died as a Result

A New Zealand couple became trapped in their "keyless" vehicle for nearly 13 hours while parked in their garage last month after confusion over how to operate the Mazda 3 hatchback left them thinking there was no way out.

According to the Otago Daily Times, Mollieanne, 65, and Brian Smith, 68, left their keys outside the car. The elderly couple apparently couldn't figure out how to unlock the doors without the set of keys and became trapped at about 7 p.m. on November 5th.

An elderly New Zealand couple nearly died after becoming trapped inside their vehicle last month. (Image source: Shutterstock)

The Smiths attempted to escape by trying to use a car jack to smash a window. When that failed, they repeatedly sounded their car alarm as a call for help. No one seemed to hear and hours went by.

Eventually, the couple's neighbors found them at 7:45 a.m. the next day. Mollieanne was unconscious and Brian was struggling to breathe, the Otago Daily Times reported.

Mollieanne spent three days in the hospital after the ordeal. Emergency personnel told them they could have died if they spent another 30 minutes inside the car.

After the incident, Brian explained to the Otago Daily Times that he couldn't believe he wasn't able to figure out how to exit the vehicle. He said the car salesman implied it was not possible to exit the vehicle when he purchased it.

''Once I found out how simple it was to unlock it I kicked myself that I did not find the way out ... I had this mind-set that I did not have the transponder [so I could not get out]," he told the New Zealand newspaper.

The 68-year-old's case only recently became known after he decided to "go public" to warn others about the risks of keyless cars, the Otago Daily Times reported.

However, Mazda's New Zealand manager said he considered the case an industry first.

''It's not a design flaw with the car ... what we have said to the network is, with new technologies, don't forget to show customers how to use them in their entirety [and] how to override them," he said. "There is always a manual process to override them.''

This story has been updated.

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