An Antioch family’s electric vehicle suddenly shut down due to a faulty battery, trapping a 12-month-old child inside for 30 minutes as the family scrambled to unlock it — and they eventually figured out the car’s single metal key is hidden in a fob accessed through the rear hatch.

In January, an Antioch family’s 2024 Cadillac Lyriq lost power due to a faulty 12-volt battery just after the mother, Lacey Gunn, had placed her 12-month-old in a car seat and walked around to help her toddler into the vehicle, as KGO’s 7 On Your Side reports.

The car, which is owned by the children’s grandparents, became unresponsive, with the electronic door handles failing to deploy, as KGO reports. The key fob did not unlock the doors, and the Cadillac mobile app was also unable to regain access.

While retrieving the physical, metal car key would have been the main solution in the past, many newer, luxury EVs, including the Lyriq, solely come with a battery-powered, digital key in place of the traditional key, according to the site SlashGear.

As KGO reports, the infant remained trapped inside the vehicle for almost half an hour as the family rushed to find a solution.

"The baby starts to cry and is becoming really upset," Erika Tinoco, the children's grandmother, told KGO. "It was a cold winter morning. She's in there by herself!"

General Motors’ in-vehicle safety and support service, OnStar, unsuccessfully tried to unlock the car remotely, and the service was unable to offer other solutions on how to access the car.

"No success!" Tinoco said. "They couldn't give me any other alternatives on how to access the car. Nothing."

7 On Your Side reports that after calling 911 and considering breaking a window, the family learned via ChatGPT that a physical key is hidden inside the key fob in the Lyriq, which can be accessed through the rear hatch. They then opened the trunk and retrieved the baby after about 27 minutes.

"She pulls out the baby through the trunk. At that point, baby is crying. She's already soiled herself," Tinoco said. "She had been in there for 27 minutes all by herself!"

The vehicle’s 12-volt battery was found to be faulty and was replaced, with an OnStar diagnostic report also flagging electrical issues, per KGO. An OnStar technician told the family the failure caused the system to shut down and enter lock mode.

Tinoco told KGO she contacted the dealership and later filed a formal complaint with Cadillac seeking answers about the failure and whether it could happen again, but said she did not receive clear explanations.

“Safety is a priority for Cadillac and General Motors,” the company wrote in a statement. “We are sorry to hear about this situation this customer encountered.” The company added that the hidden key in the hatch is explained in the owner's manual.

Posts on a Cadillac forum show other drivers reporting issues with the Lyriq’s 12-volt battery, as KGO reports, including some involving the 2026 model. GM said it works with federal regulators to determine when recalls are necessary and confirmed the 2024 Lyriq has not been subject to a 12-volt battery-related recall.

Cadillac declined Tinoco's request to buy back the car’s lease, stating the case does not meet Lemon Law criteria.

While it’s important for car owners to read the manual before operating a vehicle to be aware of what to do in emergency situations, as the Guessing Headlights reports, vehicles that rely on all-electronic controls still pose risks no matter how prepared the driver is.

Additionally, situations involving failed 12-volt batteries are not unique to this model or even to electric vehicles. As Guessing Headlines reports, most modern cars, including gas and hybrid models, rely on a low-voltage battery to power electronic systems such as door locks, onboard computers, lighting, and keyless entry. If that battery fails, those systems can become unresponsive even if the main engine or high-voltage battery is still functional.

All automakers include physical backup entry methods, but some online commenters said electronically deployed handles and rear-hatch access can pose problems during outages, particularly if alternative entry points like the rear hatch are blocked or inaccessible.

Others noted how OnStar neglected to tell the family about the hidden physical key, which would have helped shorten this traumatic incident.

And in the age of insidious surveillance, one can’t help but wonder if doing away with traditional keys was yet another way to track consumers — at the expense of safety.

Image: Alexander-93/Wikimedia

Related: Tesla to Redesign Door Handles Following 140 Reports of Trapped Occupants, Feds Investigating

BART has set aside over $500,000 to fight citations for violations dating back to 2019, as Cal/OSHA considers fining the agency more than $200,000 over a 2024 incident where managers allowed employees to work on a live track, and BART is blaming the workers.

As NBC Bay Area’s Jaxon Van Derbeken reports, Cal/OSHA is considering hitting BART with more than $200,000 in new fines over alleged safety violations tied to track replacement work inside the Berkeley–Orinda Hills tunnel in November 2024, where crews were reportedly allowed to work on a live track without proper clearance.

Fortunately, no one was injured, unlike a deadly incident in 2013 in which two BART engineers were struck and killed by a train that was being operated by a trainee, as SFist reported at the time.

According to Cal/OSHA’s citation for the 2024 incident, one manager believed crews were permitted to perform track work without clearance, while another said he allowed the job to continue after workers told him they were “fine” with proceeding. In its appeal of the citation, BART argues the situation resulted from the “independent action” of unnamed employees.

BART employee Tony Velasquez, who spoke to NBC Bay Area about the incident, said he was in charge of a crew replacing a 40-foot section of corroded track beside the tunnel’s 1,000-volt third rail that day.

Velasquez said he followed BART protocol by requesting “safe clearance” from operations before work began, confirming the third rail was deactivated. Per NBC Bay Area, when operations told him there was a delay in granting clearance, he said he instructed the crew not to start work.

“I told everybody… on the job site that we don't have safe clearance, so no work,” he said.

But two workers later left with a pair of BART managers who had arrived at the site and began the job anyway, as NBC Bay Area reports. Velasquez said he was alarmed by management’s dismissive attitude following the potentially deadly incident.

“One of them just shrugged like, ‘I don't know,’” Velasquez said, referring to management. “Then I asked the other guy and he's like, ‘No, it's okay. We don't need safe clearance, we'll keep on working.’’’

Velasquez disputes BART’s claim that employees acted independently, noting the two managers who were present in the tunnel when the work proceeded, per NBC Bay Area.

“I knew that day when all that stuff happened, it was going to be a bad night and I knew that they were going to try to wash their hands and put the blame on us,” Velasquez said.

The agency has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars challenging Cal/OSHA enforcement actions. As NBC Bay Area reports, BART’s governing board recently approved up to $150,000 more for the effort, bringing the total set aside for legal fights with the state worker safety agency to more than $500,000 since 2019.

BART said in a statement to NBC Bay Area that the citations are for an incident that “did not result in an accident or anyone being injured.”

“Cal/OSHA has previously brought citations against BART related to these same issues, and they were overturned in court,” said the agency. “BART likewise plans to appeal these latest citations.”

As SFist reported back in 2017, NBC Bay Area obtained footage of a deadly 2013 incident where two BART engineers, Laurence Daniels and Christopher Sheppard, were struck and killed by a rookie operator driving an empty train while other employees were on strike. The footage shows the operator’s trainer, who was supposed to be at the trainee’s side during the entirety of the trip, texting and talking on the phone in the passenger portion of the train leading up to the incident.

The trainer can be heard giving the trainee a hard time for “bothering” them with questions, joking, “How many more times are you going to make me get up. G**dammit?”

BART was ultimately fined $1.3 million in 2018 by the California Public Utilities Commission over the 2013 incident, as the Chronicle reported at the time. BART was required to pay half the fine at $650,000 up front, while the commission put the agency on a three-year probation, stipulating that BART must pay the remaining amount if any other safety violations occured in that time.

NBC Bay Area reports that OSHA investigators found no evidence of any employees receiving disciplinary action or being retrained following the 2024 incident. According to BART records, one of the managers involved received a promotion.

John Arantes, head of SEIU Local 1021, said it’s concerning that BART is choosing to stockpile funds for legal fees — while promoting managers accused of disregarding workers' safety — instead of addressing violations and enforcing protocols.

“It’s very scary now,” he told NBC Bay Area. “You never know if you're going to make it home or not, because you don't know if they're going to provide a safe work environment out there, or they're just going to put you in danger.”

Image: Pi.1415926535/Wikimedia

Related: 2 BART Workers Killed by Train

Chris Hansen’s upcoming documentary Predators will investigate Roblox, the popular game-making tool accused of enabling the exploitation of underage users. The company is also being sued by the state of Louisiana.

On the heels of a report exposing Meta’s policy that allowed its chatbots to pursue children “romantically or sensually,” leading to an investigative probe by Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, as reported by SFist, San Mateo-based Roblox is facing both a lawsuit by the attorney general of Louisiana and a documentary investigation.

As FandomWire reports, former To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen announced he'll be pursuing the Roblox investigation through his online streaming network TruBlu after YouTuber Michael Schlep posted viral “predator-catching” videos, which led to six confirmed arrests and shed light on egregious negligence by the company.

As AV Club reports, Roblox has since begun retaliating against Schlep and other so-called vigilante users, banning and sending them cease and desist letters. The company also updated its Terms of Service to target vigilante groups. FandomWire notes that Schlep’s motivation for pursuing the case stems from his own experience as an underage victim of a prominent Roblox developer.

As the Washington Post reports, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced Thursday that she filed a lawsuit against the company, saying its lack of safety protocols make it “the perfect place for pedophiles.”

According to the Washington Post, the lawsuit states that sexually explicit content, such as “Escape to Epstein Island,” “Diddy Party,” and “Public Bathroom Simulator Vibe,” is hosted alongside the many age-appropriate activities on the platform.

“Due to Roblox’s lack of safety protocols, it endangers the safety of the children of Louisiana. Roblox is overrun with harmful content and child predators because it prioritizes user growth, revenue, and profits over child safety,” Murrill said in a statement. “Every parent should be aware of the clear and present danger posed to their children by Roblox so they can prevent the unthinkable from ever happening in their own home.”

Murrill’s statement says that a recent report exposed 3,334 members who “openly traded child pornography and solicited sexual acts from minors.” The statement also highlights a recent arrest in Livingston Parish, Louisiana involving a suspect who used voice-altering technology to make his voice sound like a young girl, allegedly to lure users off the platform.

The Washington Post adds that in May, a 28-year-old Maryland man pleaded guilty to producing child pornography after prosecutors say he coerced more than 100 underage girls on Roblox and other popular platforms into sending him sexually explicit content of themselves.

The Post writes that there have also been several other lawsuits filed against Roblox in recent months. A California father whose 10-year-old daughter was allegedly kidnapped by a 27-year-old man on the platform filed a suit last week, and the law firm Dolman Law Group has filed lawsuits on behalf of families in Texas, Michigan, Georgia, and California, alleging their children were sexually exploited while playing Roblox.

“It’s basically open season for sex predators on this app,” Attorney General Murrill said at a news conference on Thursday, as reported by outlet WBRZ. “At the end of the day, I think Roblox should be shut down.”

Additionally, Representative Ro Khanna (D-California) launched a petition pressuring Roblox to increase its safety protocols. “Roblox is at a crossroads,” the petition states. “We’re not going to stand by while kids are exploited online, and powerful tech companies can do more to stop it.”

Image: Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Samsung

Previously: Meta’s Policy Allowing Bots to Engage in ‘Romantic or Sensual’ Talk With Kids Prompts Senate Investigation

CBS News California’s Julie Watts and her daughter’s fifth grade class investigated the harmful “Sephora Kids” skincare trend aimed at tweens and helped bring attention to AB 728, a bill that passed a committee 4-2 but was quietly killed in Sacramento.

The students partnered with Watts and the CBS News California team to investigate a troubling trend: beauty brands marketing adult-grade skincare to tweens. Their reporting revealed that viral products — often promoted by kid-fluencers — frequently contain potent ingredients like retinol and alpha hydroxy acids, which dermatologists say can harm young skin.

Assemblymember Alex Lee of Milpitas, the youngest member serving on the Assembly, recently authored AB 728, which seeks to restrict the sale of certain anti-aging skincare products to children under 13.

“Lots of companies profit — they make money — off of things we don’t feel good about,” Lee explained to the fifth graders. “I think it’s really bad that companies make money off of children.”

11-year-old Scarlett Goddard-Strahan told the Assembly she unknowingly used a retinol product and developed painful side effects that left her unable to sleep for two weeks:

Years later, I still have bumps on my cheeks. If you look at my cheeks now, they get red and itchy when I sweat and when I am out in the sun. I used those products because I wanted to feel pretty and more confident. But now I feel embarrassed and pretty self-conscious.

During the report, other students pointed to how brightly colored packaging draws kids in, while health warnings are printed too small to notice.

SFist asked our own 11-year-old about her experience with beauty products, to which she responded, “The trends can trick our brains into wanting to try them.” She said she already knew to avoid retinol prior to the news report but not the other ingredients. "I got red bumps on my face one time."

But the bill faced pushback from industry groups and some health advocates. Margaret Gladstein, representing the California Retailers Association, warned it would be “impossible” for stores to enforce. Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan cautioned that defining “anti-aging” in law would be difficult, noting that many anti-aging ingredients have broader uses.

Although the bill cleared its first policy committee with a 4–2 vote, it was quietly shelved by Appropriations Chair Buffy Wicks, halting its progress for the year. The students, according to Watts, are still waiting for a response to their request to interview her.

Watts explained her core motivation for pursuing this story and deciding to cover it through their eyes, “If I, as an investigative reporter, can’t figure out which of these products are safe, then what about parents who don’t investigate for a living? What about your parents? And that’s the concern.”

While AB 728 may be off the table for now, the students’ campaign has already raised awareness around a growing concern: that children are being marketed — and sold — skincare products their bodies aren’t ready for, without clear warnings or oversight.

And if their early activism is any indication, these kids aren’t done yet.

Image: ATHVisions/Getty Images

A cyclist was killed Tuesday, after police say he was struck by a driver at a busy San Francisco intersection.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, a male cyclist in his 40s was riding through the intersection of Alemany Boulevard and Silver Avenue at 5:34 p.m.Tuesday when the incident occurred.

The report from police states only that a "vehicle on Alemany had a collision with a bicyclist."

The cyclist was transported to San Francisco General Hospital, where police say that he succumbed to his injuries. A spokesperson with the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office confirmed that the deceased had not been publicly identified as of Wednesday morning.

The driver remained at the scene, police say, and cooperated with the investigation. As of publication time, additional details on the crash were not available, nor was any information on possible citations or charges faced by the driver.

The rider of what the San Francisco Police Department made an effort to specify was a "fixed speed" bicycle is dead after a collision with an SFPD patrol car Friday night.

According to SFPD spokesperson Officer Albie Esparza, at 9 p.m. Friday officers were on patrol, driving westbound on Persia Avenue toward Sunnydale Avenue, near McLaren Park.

"They were just driving regular, no lights or sirens, not going to a call, just regular, routine driving approaching this intersection,” Esparza told KPIX.

"At a bend just prior to Sunnydale, a collision occurred between a marked police vehicle and a bicyclist," Esparza said in a written statement sent to media Friday evening.

"It's unclear if the patrol vehicle collided with the bicyclist or the bicyclist hit the patrol car," he wrote.

ABC7 reports that the cyclist "apparently rode into the roadway from a trail and it was very dark when the crash took place."

Calling for an ambulance on police radio, an officer said “We’ve got a bicyclist down, bleeding profusely from the face,” the Chron reports.

However, the cyclist, a man in his 20s who, as of Saturday morning had not been publicly identified by the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office, "was deceased on scene," Esparza says.

According to Bay City News, the cyclist was not wearing a helmet when the collision occurred.

"The bicycle was a fixed speed," Esparza notes in his statement. More frequently described as a "fixed-gear" bicycle, "fixies" (as they are commonly known) have in recent years gained popularity with cyclists in urban areas.

Esparza did not note any technical specifications of the patrol car from the collision in his statement.

"This is a tragedy, our thoughts go out to the bicyclist's family, as well as out two officers involved as this is a tragic incident," Esparza says, vowing that SFPD's Traffic Collision Investigations Unit and CSI will conduct a thorough investigation.

Esparza says that "an administrative process will also be conducted for the driver," which will include a toxicology report.

Esparza says that the department is also seeking witnesses to the collision, asking anyone who might have seen it to contact SFPD anonymously at 415-575-4444 or to text-a-tip to TIP411 with SFPD at start of message.

Not shockingly, the safest city in the Bay Area is also the richest. And once again Oakland is rated the most dangerous, according to the FBI's annual "Crime in the United States" report, released this week.

In 2013, an estimated 1,163,146 violent crimes took place across America, representing a decrease of 4.4 percent from 2012. So that's good.

However, here in San Francisco we saw a 22 percent increase in violent crime. And though Oakland is trending downward in violent crime according to the city's reports, it still leads the state in violent crime with a rate five times the California average. And once again it rates as the Bay Area's most dangerous city, as it has every year.

Here, as counted off by the Chronicle, are the area's safest cities of over 10,000, based on the number of violent crimes per 1,000 residents. Note that the state average for that is 3.93.

Hillsborough: 0
Clayton: 0.18
San Ramon: 0.36
Danville: 0.39
Foster City: 0.46
Orinda: 0.54
Moraga: 0.66
Cupertino: 0.68
Los Altos: 0.76

Now, the most dangerous cities. Sorry, Oakland:

Oakland: 19.77
Emeryville: 12.67
East Palo Alto: 11.93
Richmond: 10.36
Antioch: 8.80
Vallejo: 8.61
San Francisco: 8.47
San Pablo: 6.69
Berkeley: 4.84
Fairfield: 4.59

Oh hey, remember how happy you were cheering along Batkid on Friday? Want to feel that feeling EVERY DAY? Safe Passage, a group that helps 4,000 unaccompanied kids walk home from school each day in the Tenderloin needs your help. Specifically, they need volunteers to stand on corners to watch kids get home safely — Corner Captains, is what they're called. Which is downright adorable.

SF Appeal's Max A. Cherney, who penned a great piece on the organization, has the details:

Currently about 4,000 children attend school in the area, according to Dina Hilliard, of the Tenderloin Development Committee. Hilliard participates in a program called Tenderloin Safe Passage, which aims to keep the school children safe by escorting them through some of the more dangerous areas.

Data regarding exactly how many of these 4,000 kids walk home unaccompanied is hard to come by.

According to a recent count on a single day at the corner of Turk and Leavenworth — known by Tenderloin cops as “Pill Hill” due to the availability of prescription opiates or “Roxies” — Safe Passage observed 171 children between 2:45 and 3:15 P.M.

If you want to become a Corner Captain, you will get to wear a bright yellow vest (so that the children can identify you) and will be trained how to deal with very Tenderloinesuqe issues (i.e., drug dealing and nearby violence). Further, you'll probably get into heaven. So there's that.

Anyway, our Batkid story garnered almost 90K likes so far. Kids walking home in the TL certainly deserves the same kind of attention. If you'd like to volunteer with Safe Passage, you can find out how to do so here, or email Erin Chen for more info at erin[at]tenderloinsafepassage[dot]com.

[SF Appeal]

Oy. In SoMa near Seventh and Mission at around 7 p.m. Sunday night, a driver hit a cyclist and then fled the scene. The cyclist was taken to SF General for evaluation. It it not yet known how seriously they were injured.

As for the driver? He or was in a white van, "most likely with front-end damage and possibly a shattered window." No further description is available.

Anyone with information should call SFPD's anonymous tip line at 415-575-4444 or via tip by text message to TIP411 with "SFPD" in the message. Thanks.

[KTVU]
[SF Appeal]

Wired Gadget Lab’s senior writer Mat Honan's digital life was hacked last week. In addition to a detailed article on Monday, he also gave a rather jarring interview about what happened and the entire thing comes off like an episode of I Survived (though not nearly as bad because, oh my god, that show is utterly terrifying and beyond lurid). Describing himself as "intimately tied to his devices," he's now paranoid about his daily online use. Understandably so.

Honan also goes into detail about his online communications with the person who took control of his Amazon account, AppleID, and GMail, asking them if they felt any remorse for what they had done. (Spoiler: they do!) In the end, Honan's simple advice is to back up your stuff and sign up for two-factor authentication on Google.

[Wired]

After taking a lot of crap this year for shutting off cellphones and shooting a guy, the BART Police force is looking to make good this holiday season. In a press release, by way of SFAppeal, BART announces their plans to step up foot patrols around downtown San Francisco and offer escorted walks home from the West Oakland and San Leandro stations.

While the increased foot patrols will be on the lookout for potential gift-nabbers on busy downtown BART platforms during the shopping season, the walks home are only offered tonight, December 15th and tomorrow, December 16th from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Oakland police cadets and BART Community service officers at the West Oakland station will be wearing red "Pedestrian Escort" vests and are available to walk passengers as far as a three block radius from the station.

In San Leandro, on Wednesday, December 21st BART and San Leandro PD officers will offer escorts between the Bay Fair Station and the Bayfair Mall, not too far from that Wal-Mart that saw some Black Friday violence.

Keep your appendages inside the cable car at all times, kids, because a kid riding the Powell-Hyde cable car line was hurt Wednesday afternoon. According to SF Appeal, "a car drifted toward thee cable car and its side mirror struck an 11-year-old boy in the stomach who was on the cable car." The child was suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

OK, sure, it sounds like the tyke wasn't fooling around, and that the car came too close to, but still. Keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times. Ahem.

Like the plot to a John Waters movie, Riverside County supervisors voted to ban sex offenders from decorating their homes with holiday accents and leaving lights on during Halloween night. "They also cannot answer their door to pass out candy to children," reports AP.

Offending sex offenders could face a $1,000 fine and six months in the clink.

According to The Press Enterprise, Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone "said he hopes parents and others look up where registered sex offenders live in the Megan’s Law online database before heading out for trick or treating. And if they see the lights on or decorations out front, Stone said he wants residents to call authorities."

Oh, Jeff, that really does sound like fun for the entire family come All Hallow's Eve. Gives new meaning to the term "spooktacular."

Next Thursday, October 20th, the annual Great California ShakeOut earthquake drill, reportedly the third largest in history, will take place at 10:20 a.m., once again reminding us to continue working on our preparedness. Do you have that emergency preparedness kit prepared? (For the hopelessly lazy busy, may we suggest a swanky Vintage-Style kit?) Do you know what Drop, Cover, and Hold On is? And most importantly, is your furniture secured?

You hear stories from past earthquakes, such as the people who luckily weren't in their apartments during the Loma Prieta Earthquake: There's the person who might have been decapitated by a heavy glass picture that fell from the wall over their bed. Or how about the one who would have lost his legs from a heavy dresser that fell onto the foot of his bed? (Do you have a story? Tell us in the comments!) The ShakeOut website has a very informative quiz on this matter. It turns out there's a solution for everything.

They also have some entertaining videos about what happens when you're "totally unprepared," including the below video.

According the ShakeOut's website, 1,214,486 Bay Area participants have signed up so far and nearly 8 million state-wide. Sign up your family, business, or school here.