“Stationary Safety” Technology Set to Roll Out
IVsource.net
19 July 2001

This article takes a closer look at an initiative to install carbon monoxide detectors in vehicles to help prevent deaths that occur during idling.  And how much does CO affect driver impairment while on the road?

While the IV community is focused on avoiding crashes while traveling down the highways, a small but growing group of product developers and advocacy groups is seeking to avoid the tragic deaths that still occur while some vehicles are stationary.  While the number of occurrences is miniscule compared to the volume of crashes every year, these deaths are even more easily avoidable -- and too many times the victims are young children.

The three main “hazards” within a stationary car are the trunk (specifically, being locked inside the trunk), heat (e.g., in cases where a small child or animal may be left inside on a hot day while the driver performs an errand), and carbon monoxide poisoning (not just suicides; people inadvertently succumb as well).

It is becoming increasingly common in new vehicles to have Inside Trunk Latches, so that a trapped person can get out.  Systems that detect excessive heat, and respond by opening windows or through other countermeasures, are being tested now by automotive product developers.  However, one of the more intriguing and less discussed areas of activity is CO poisoning.

200 Unintentional CO Deaths Per Year in North America

In an effort to prevent over 1,500 deaths per year caused by carbon monoxide (CO) from idling motor vehicles in the United States and Canada, Albert Donnay, the president of MCS Referral & Resources, filed a formal petition early this year with the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Canada's Road Safety Directorate.  The petition cites a 1991 NHTSA-funded study that suggested that digital CO detectors -- linked to an automatic engine cut-off switch and costing just $11.39 in parts -- could prevent both the unintentional deaths caused by vehicular CO (about 200 per year) and the suicides (estimated at about 1,300 per year).

CO Contributes to Moving Vehicle Deaths, Too?

Surprisingly, the death toll caused by CO poisoning in moving vehicles may be even greater.  Mr. Donnay's petition cites published data showing that up to 10% of fatalities in motor vehicle "accidents" may be related to recent CO poisoning, based on studies finding high carbon monoxide levels in the blood of deceased drivers.  According to MCS,  NHTSA never acted on any of these findings or commissioned any other studies of CO detectors in vehicles.  CO poisoning has not been directly investigated in NHTSA drowsy driver research -- although the PERCLOS drowsiness detection technique (see related IVsource articles on this subject) would in principle detect a  loss of consciousness stemming from any cause.

According to MCS, the data show that deaths from CO in stationary idling vehicles, which are not currently included in NHTSA's database of fatalities from moving motor vehicle accidents, would add another 5% to the annual total if they were.

"I hope NHTSA and the auto industry will not delay another decade," says Mr. Donnay, "while five more people, on average, die of carbon monoxide poisoning from motor vehicles every day."

One must wonder, though, how many of these moving-vehicle CO deaths are in older model vehicles which do not have the emissions controls and design improvements of recent years.  Only if  CO poisoning is happening in new cars can rulemaking help. 

Mr. Donnay's nine-page petition and a two-page summary are available on-line at www.mcsrr.org.

NHTSA Actions

NHTSA reported in 1996, and again in 2000, that both suicides and unintentional deaths caused by carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning in motor vehicles are still a significant cause of death -- again, over 1,500 per year -- even after the major reductions in CO from vehicle exhaust achieved by the use of catalytic converters first introduced in the 1970s.  Clearly, NHTSA recognized a need to warn the public about the "Danger from Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Associated with Motor Vehicles," having issued a press release on this subject in 1996.

Petition Seeks Mandatory Countermeasures

The petition sent to NHTSA and Transport Canada by Mr. Donnay is excerpted here:

“On behalf of the at least 16,000 North Americans who have died needlessly from vehicular CO poisoning since NHTSA was first informed in 1991 of the life-saving potential of CO detectors linked to engine cut-off switches, and on behalf of the hundreds more who will die of vehicular CO every year until vehicle manufacturers are required to warn consumers about and protect them from this lethal hazard, I -- an environmental health engineer, certified carbon monoxide analyst, president of MCS Referral & Resources, and a dual citizen of the United States and Canada -- petition both NHTSA and the Canadian RSD to do the following:

1. Beginning in 2001, start issuing an annual consumer advisory warning (in the form of a press release and public service announcements) about the dangers of vCO and recommending the use of portable low-level digital CO monitors inside motor vehicles that can warn vehicle occupants about low levels of CO before they become lethal.
   
2. Beginning in 2001, start tracking and publicly reporting all vCO-related deaths (in each country), both suicides and unintentional fatalities in stationary and moving vehicles, on an annual basis, using data on these causes already collected by the US NCHS and Health Canada.
   
3. Beginning in 2002, start funding intramural and extramural research into the causes, effects, detection and prevention of vCO exposure inside vehicles.  All NHTSA-funded researchers studying the impact of human factors such as drowsiness and alcohol consumption on driving performance should be encouraged to study the interaction of such factors with vCO and to at least control for vCO exposure in their study designs.
   
4. Beginning in 2003, require vehicle manufacturers to include detailed information in their vehicle owners' manuals about the health dangers of vCO, the life-saving potential of CO detectors, and tips for reducing vCO exposure.
   
5. Beginning in 2003 or 2004 at the latest, require vehicle manufacturers to install CO detectors in the passenger compartment of all new motor vehicles -- and to offer equivalent devices as optional upgrades for older vehicles -- featuring a digital display and some kind of temporarily silenceable audiovisual warning activated instantly by any CO levels above 9ppm.
   
6. Beginning in 2003 or 2004 at the latest, require manufacturers of vehicles with gasoline engines (only) to connect the built-in CO detector to an engine cut-off switch designed to instantly shut off the ignition and engine as soon as and as along as the CO level inside the vehicle exceeds 200ppm (the NIOSH evacuation limit), provided for safety reasons that the vehicle is not already moving.  If the vehicle is moving when CO levels exceed 200ppm (a most unlikely scenario), the occupants should be directed to open more than one window immediately.

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For More Information ...

... contact: Albert Donnay, President, MCS, at adonnay@mcsrr.org .

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