Ford, GM back Democratic plan to prevent ‘silent killer’ car deaths

While he slept, the three-story house filled with carbon monoxide emitted from the car, and paramedics found him Saturday morning barely breathing, with a weak pulse. Shasteen died the following Monday at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, according to the suit, which was settled confidentially in late January.

His death is among more than 90 injuries and fatalities since 2006 that prompted Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ed Markey of Massachussetts to propose a bill aimed at preventing similar deaths. Their bill would require the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to require that vehicles with keyless ignition automatically turn themselves off after a specified period of idling time.

The measure already has the backing of automakers Ford and GM as well as an array of safety-advocacy groups. Roughly half of the 17 million cars sold in the U.S. each year have keyless ignitions, and NHTSA has been considering rules governing them since 2011, though no rules have been implemented.

Advocates say such automobiles pose a heightened risk to drivers because it’s easier to unwittingly leave them running, raising the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning from exhaust fumes in closed spaces, and to turn them off while still in gear, which can cause the vehicles to roll forward or backward.

“This legislation will require NHTSA to do what it should have done nearly eight years ago — protect American drivers and families from injury and death by finalizing some basic safety standards,” Blumenthal said.

The measure amounts to common-sense precaution, Amber Rollins, director of the advocacy group KidsandCars.org, told the Washington Examiner. Keyless systems can be particularly risky for vehicle operators who learned to drive in the era of standard keys, when it was impossible to take a key out of a vehicle without taking the car out of forward or reverse gear and turning it off. Since many drivers carried car and house keys on the same ring, entering a home usually required turning off the car’s engine and removing the key.

“The solution is so easy,” she added. “They should have done this years ago, when they first found out about these deaths. It’s one of those things that is a no-brainer.”

For the automotive industry, however, the issue is far from simple. When the NHTSA initially proposed its rules, carmakers said they supported uniform standards.

But they quibbled over details ranging from the questionnaires the government was using to seek input from vehicle owners, to the volume of alert beeps that might be mandated to warn drivers their car was running. The 2011 proposal didn’t require auto-shutoff.

“Unfortunately, when it comes to safety features in vehicles, historically most of them have had to be required by Congress before the automakers would install them as equipment,” Rollins said, citing features from seat belts to pull-cords on the inside of trunk lids designed to prevent people being trapped inside.

The total number of deaths and injuries related to keyless ignitions is likely far higher than the cases her organization has identified to date, she added, and older Americans make up a disproportionately large amount. But they aren’t the only ones affected.

“I’m 33 years old,” Rollins said, “and I cannot tell you how many times I have left my push-button car running. It’s happened to me, and I know it’s an issue.”

No comprehensive data on such cases exists, since the federal government hasn’t tracked them in the past. It’s a situation Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., urged the traffic safety administration to correct last year.

The agency’s lack of action has allowed some carmakers “to state publicly that their keyless ignition systems meet or exceed all relevant federal safety standards, despite the known and unaddressed dangers,” he wrote in a July letter to acting administrator Heidi King, whom President Trump has nominated to fill the post permanently.

Ford, which already includes an auto-shutoff feature in some of its models that activates after 15 minutes, “supports the principle of this bill,” spokeswoman Rachel McCleery told the Washington Examiner. “We will continue to work with Congress as it lays out its legislative agenda on vehicle safety.”

GM, which has built a similar feature that turns off engines after about an hour into some of its Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC models, said it, too, backed the proposal.

“This legislation reflects GM’s continued dedication to advancing automotive safety,” said spokesman Darri’n Hardy. “We look foward to working with the senator.”

Without a federal rule requiring such a feature or other safety backstops for keyless ignition, however, most carmakers haven’t addressed the issue, Blumenthal said.

The Auto Alliance, a trade group representing companies behind 70 percent of all U.S. auto sales, said keyless ignitions generally conform to standards set by SAE International, formerly known as the Society of Automotive Engineers. That organization’s guideline for keyless ignitions mentions a timed auto-shutoff feature but doesn’t require it.

Blumenthal’s bill would help ensure keyless ignitions come with already-available technology “to prevent rollaways and reduce the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning,” said William Wallace, senior policy analyst at Consumer Reports.

Carbon monoxide, long referred to as the “silent killer,” is produced whenever fossil fuels are burned; both odorless and colorless, it can cause death within minutes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Roughly 500 Americans die each year from carbon monoxide poisoning, and another 20,000 seek emergency treatment for symptoms from headaches to dizziness and vomiting.

“No one should die because of poorly designed controls,” Wallace added “or because they’re rushing and simply forget to push a button.”