Penarth man's warning after car ordeal (From Penarth Times)

Penarth man's warning after car ordeal

8:30am Friday 3rd February 2012 in News By Robert James Owen

AN ELDERLY Penarthian was left in a panic last week when the electrics on his brand new Ford Fiesta failed - locking him inside the car.

Eighty-five-year-old Peter Setchfield suffered the unfortunate incident on Wednesday (January 25), as he tried to make his way to a doctor’s appointment from his home at Seabank on the Esplanade.

He was left trapped inside the vehicle in the car park at the flats - unable to open any of the doors or windows, or contact his family or the AA for help due to poor mobile phone reception - for almost half an hour.

And he only managed to escape his predicament when his attempts to kick the passenger window through sparked the ignition back to life.

The incident left his blood pressure ‘through the roof’ as he was told by his doctor, and although not normally a nervous person he said the effects of claustrophobia had started to set in.

"When the realisation of my predicament set in, I did become extremely concerned," said the former head of music, arts and television at the BBC.

"The car had steamed up considerably and at one point I was worried if any air was coming in.

"There were no other people around in the car park and I could not phone anyone because of the lack of reception.

"After about 25 minutes I thought to myself I can’t just sit here, so I manoeuvered myself into a position to try and kick through the passenger window.

"As it happens I couldn’t do it, but the force of my kick caused the lights on the dashboard to half flicker, before stabilising enough for me to open the door.

"I took the car to a local mechanic and was told it could have something to do with the fact that I might not have closed the boot properly," he added.

"Needless to say I found that a bit insulting. I now carry a hammer in the glove box."

Mr Setchfield said the same problem happened again on Saturday evening.

"Fortunately I never close the door now until I have started the ignition, so when the steering and windows locked I knew it had happened again," he said.

"I rang the AA and the mechanic who came out said he was certain it was a design fault. I have written to Ford to inform them of my problems.

"It doesn’t sound like a lot until it happens to you, but I would hate it to happen to someone who is naturally more nervous than myself.

"As my doctor said to me, what if it happened to her with her young baby. What would she have done?"