Story highlights Cars can heat up very quickly and kill children or pet, even on a pleasant day

CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri explains how the sun's radiation is trapped in your car

(CNN) It's a hot day, and you see a dog locked inside a car, its owner nowhere in sight.

Any good Samaritan would want to act to free the animal before it dies. But who wants to get arrested for breaking a car window to free the beast? That's what happened to veteran Michael Hammons, who broke a car window in Athens, Georgia, to free a dog . (Charges were later dropped.)

That won't happen to you in Tennessee, where a new law extends a good Samaritan law that allows people to break into a hot car to free a child; it now includes animals in danger, according to CNN affiliate WKRN

People who notify law enforcement and attempt to find the owner will be protected from civil liability if they damage a car while trying to rescue an animal in danger.

"If you act reasonably, as any reasonable person would respond, you will not be at fault to save a life," Nashville Fire Department Chief of Staff Mike Franklin told WKRN. "You will not be at any fault to save a life and/or animals."

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