A local organization is pushing for carbon monoxide detectors to be installed in all new vehicles.
Tragic and often fatal effects of carbon monoxide poisoning make headlines nationwide, like when people accidentally leave their cars running inside their garages as deadly fumes slowly and silently invade their homes. Several police departments nationwide, including Montgomery County, Maryland, have grounded SUVs after police officers reported being sickened from carbon monoxide leaking into their vehicles.
“Roughly speaking, from vehicle exposure, you have about 1,500 Americans die each year,” Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) Executive Director Jeff Ruch said. “Tens of thousands are injured.”
Ruch's non-profit organization says it has a cheap solution that will cut down, if not eliminate, carbon monoxide injuries and deaths due to vehicles.
“A simple $5 detector would prevent those kinds of tragedies,” he said.
Ruch said PEER filed a petition with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in March 2016 requesting the agency require all new vehicles be equipped with carbon monoxide detectors and a device that would shut off the car before fumes reach a deadly level.
“That’s the sort of thing NHTSA should be tracking and, we think, acting on,” Ruch said.
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NHTSA denied similar petitions filed in the past. One reason is a concern the engine may shut off in certain traffic situations, such as sitting in a tunnel.
In a statement to News4 NHTSA said it "takes all possible safety risks or defects seriously." The agency went on to say it "does investigate carbon monoxide poisoning in motor vehicles and will take future action as appropriate."
Air quality experts said people can put carbon monoxide detectors in their cars themselves, but don’t use home detectors. Use detectors designed for cars that displays levels starting at one part per million, which home detectors don’t.
