carbon monoxide poisoning Tag Archives - Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

You may have heard of the recent death of a Milton high school teacher due to carbon monoxide poisoning while she was in her town home. At least seven people in the connected town homes were injured, some seriously, by this carbon monoxide poisoning episode. It was so tragic and unexpected. The situation is still under investigation, but officials say they believe the exposure at the town homes was caused by an unoccupied vehicle left accidentally running in one of the town home’s garages. Investigators have since determined someone left their car running in their garage, sending the carbon monoxide through the adjoining homes.

Although this tragedy invoked the call for more people to have carbon monoxide detectors in their homes, I was surprised it didn’t also create an outcry that automobile manufacturers change their faulty design of ignition buttons. This is referred to as “keyless ignitions.” It has been well known for some time now that ignition buttons like the ones shown above have a faulty design that doesn’t allow the driver to know easily whether they have successfully turned off their car. There have been numerous instances of people dying from carbon monoxide poisoning in their homes due to their car still running in their garage that is attached to their home. It is no secret that these ignition “buttons” are defective in design and utilization.

The photographs above are from a rental car I drove recently. The only visible difference from these two buttons is that one has the very small “OFF” that appears to be illuminated in yellow and the other one has a very small “RUN” that appears to be illuminated in yellow. The one on the right is when the car engine is running. The one on the left is when the car engine is off. Do you see how hard it is to tell the difference? Sometimes these engines are so quiet the driver cannot tell whether he or she has correctly pressed the button all the way in to turn off the car. And because these cars have “fobs” now rather than actual keys, you may be carrying the fob in your pocket or in your purse and you may be still close enough to the car even when you are in your home that the car “thinks” the fob is still in the car and it will continue to run. When the garage is attached to the house, carbon monoxide fumes can quickly and easily travel into the home, sickening anyone inside. This is even more likely and foreseeable when the garage is attached to a town home, as it was in the recent tragedy in Milton. Not only did the carbon monoxide travel into the first town home where the running car was garaged, it continued to leak into the attached town homes, sickening others.

My car has a push button starter: am I at risk? The short answer is yes. Not only are YOU are risk but anyone who lives in your house if you have an attached garage in which you park your car is at risk, too, for carbon monoxide poisoning and perhaps even death. Does your push button starter look anything like the one above? I was driving a rental car on business in another state recently and it had one of these push button starters. I had never used one before, but I had certainly heard of their inherent dangers. The problem is a design flaw. You may think you have turned off the ignition, after all, you have the keyless fob in your pocket with you. But often the engine is so quiet while in park you don’t realize it is still running. If you park your car in an attached garage, dangerous carbon monoxide gas can easily enter your home and kill you and anyone in your home while you sleep, without your ever waking up to realize there is a fatal hazard in your home.

This design flaw is well known to car manufacturers. “We have documented at least 19 fatalities that are specifically attributed to keyless ignition vehicles since 2009 and 25 more close calls,” said Janette Fennell, founder and president of the safety group KidsAndCars.org. “As more keyless ignition vehicles are sold, we are going to see these predictable and preventable injuries and deaths increase.”

There is a simple solution: an automatic shut-off system for the car if it has been running for a certain amount of time without moving, e.g., 30 minutes or so. This would prevent any carbon monoxide build up if you accidentally leave your car running in your garage. Some cars do have this safety feature, others do not. It is difficult at this point even to understand why not all such cars would include the automatic shut-off feature. There is currently a class action lawsuit filed against 10 automobile manufacturers who have not incorporated this simple fix of a deadly design defect. According to the suit, the automakers have long known about the risk keyless ignitions pose. In fact, the suit claims, that at least 27 complaints have been submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since 2009. There is evidence that these cars continue to run regardless of how far away the keyless fob is from the running car.

Articles Tagged with carbon monoxide poisoning

Ignition Switch Design Can Lead to Carbon Monoxide Death

My Car Has a Push Button Starter: Am I At Risk?