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Old 4th September 2006, 07:49   #1
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Four Choke to death in car

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5...2500000000.htm

ALL FOUR MEMBERS OF a family were found dead in their car on Sunday morning near the Dusshera Ground in Faridabad. Police said the family appeared to have suffocated to death after inhaling carbon monoxide that might have leaked from the car's air conditioner.

Although some relatives said the four might have been poisoned or gassed, police said did not suspect foul play. "There were no injury marks on the bodies and the cash, jewellery and other valuables in the family's possession seemed untouched," said Deputy Superintendent of Police Bijender. "The car was locked from inside."

Dhanesh Jindal, an electronics-parts trader and resident of Sector 30, his wife Ruchi and their six-year-old son and two-year-old daughter had gone out for dinner on Saturday night. Since it was raining heavily and water had collected on the road, they stopped near the Dusshera Ground at Sector 16 around 8 p.m.
Faiza, who runs the Durga Dawakhana near the ground, the police he had seen Dhanesh stop the Santro. He said there were about four or five cars parked near his tent, probably waiting for the rain to stop.

On Sunday morning, Faiza again saw the Jindals' car parked at the same place. All four passengers inside were dead. Blood had seeped from their mouths.

Sheetal Singh, an automobile engineer and CMD, Altenergy India Ltd, said: "The air conditioner sometimes sucks in carbon monoxide through the exhaust system. Mixed with air, carbon monoxide slowly poisons the occupants of the car."DSP Bijender Singh said the doctors who conducted the postmortem said the deaths were caused by carbon-monoxide poisioning. "Although we have sent the viscera samples to the forensic science laboratory in Madhuban to ascertain which gas caused the deaths, preliminary postmortem reports show they were caused by suffocation," he said.

He said the doctors had said carbon monoxide had probably leaked into the car through the air-conditioning vents. "The family inhaled the gas, which works as slow poison," said Singh. "It put the whole family to sleep and eventually killed them."

Sheetal Singh said most new cars had an auto-operating system for air-conditioning. "When the AC is on and the temperature inside reaches the optimum level, there is a change in the intake mode. The AC automatically starts taking air from outside so there is enough fresh air inside,” he said.

Officials at Hyundai, which manufactures the Santro, weren’t immediately available for comment.
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Old 4th September 2006, 08:38   #2
 
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shocking.i dont think hyundai is to blame though.it would have happened in any car.but i cant understand,why would the ac suck the air(CO) from the exhaust ?and wudnt the engine stall if water entered the exhaust pipe.too much backpressure,exhaust valves wont open,engine stalls.
and again the security system came into the picture,police saying that they cudnt open the doors.
makes you wonder ,is the technology helping us or kiiling us.i see a judgement day and a terminator very soon.
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Old 4th September 2006, 10:00   #3
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I remember this happened in Malaysia when a tailor left his family in a car (Perodua Kancil, which is a rebadged Daihatsu Sirion) and went to finish off some work at his shop. Work took longer than expected and when he returned after 4 hours his wife and 1 year old daughter who had apparently fallen asleep waiting for him were dead - from similar symptoms as described in the report here.

Last edited by Steeroid : 4th September 2006 at 10:02.
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Old 4th September 2006, 11:15   #4
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Automobiles Expert says that its dangerous to keep AC on for long time when the Car is stationary. How many of us know that. I think we all prefer to keep our windows closed and AC running when the Car is still in a traffic Jam.
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Old 4th September 2006, 11:33   #5
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There is a similar danger from the Autocops when it malfunctions . Incidents of people getting locked inside during an emergency (flooding, fire) have been reported from Mumbai as well as Delhi.

Its advisable to carry a hammer in your car, to break thru the glass during a forced lockin.
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Old 4th September 2006, 11:45   #6
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read this shocking news on front page of newspaper!
but imho, it was purely the driver's fault and nothing related to Hyundai and its credibility.
almost everyone knows it, since its a thumbrule, to avoid idling a vehicle for too long and with AC its certainly not advisable, and why not advisable can judged from this unfortunate incident!
i personally prefers to keep engine off when has to idle for some significantly longer durations say, while waiting on a railway-crossing etc.
and if its raining and I needs to open windows, i rolls them down by 2-3 inches, as the visors on all windows takes care of water coming in.
this unfortunate incident has again raised a question of educating people about vehicles and road safety in their earlier childhood days only!
i m sorry for the little knowledge of the driver of that ill-fated Santro which costed him so dearly.
may their souls rest in peace.
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Old 4th September 2006, 13:36   #7
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Really shocking news ... but the newspaper reports bout exhaust fumes being sucked into the ac sounds bit hard to beleive. But its sad may their souls rest in peace.
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Old 4th September 2006, 13:38   #8
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only a few know about the technica stuff inside a car...mostly they just know how to drive...but let me ask why should the AC take in CO from the exhaust?? even if it happens so, why would engineers make such a lethal design??
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Old 4th September 2006, 13:46   #9
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It is not very difficult for this to happen. Suppose your exaust was cracked/had a leak near the point where it comes out of engine. In normal running gases would dissipate. In this case the car was submerged to about 4 feet. Due to back pressure it is possible for the gases to accumulate. Even a small amount of CO is enough to make a person dizzy and go unconcious.
but this takes time. Even if the windoes had been opened(according to police they were working fine), the people could have been saved.
the article is very sketchy on the condition of exaust pipe. Was it cracked, was there a problem where it joined with the engine etc.,
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Old 4th September 2006, 13:49   #10
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Guys, I'm not very clued on about the Santro but the reports say the car was stuck in 4 feet of water; now, 4 feet of water means the exhaust would have been under water wouldn't it? How long would the engine have been running thereafter? The whole thing is weird, I wonder what actually happened. The theory of CO through the AC vent doesn't completely jell.

May their souls rest in peace.....a whole family by god
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Old 4th September 2006, 14:04   #11
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My Santro manual specifically warns of this danger if AC is kept on during idling. This tragedy could have been prevented if the driver had taken the trouble of going through the manual. I must confess I myself became aware of this danger only recently while browsing the manual. But in any case I always switch off the engine if the idling period exceeds 5 mins or so.
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Old 4th September 2006, 14:04   #12
 
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precisely,as soon as the water would have entered the exhaust pipe the engine would have shut down.any of u guys pluging the exhaust of a car with a banana.the car shuts down immediately.it might be possible that the ac was on fresh air mode(sucking air from the outside),the car was running,the water entered the exhaust,since the engine was running it was hot and the water touching it maybe led to some steam being produced mixed with some chemicals(coolant,grease,engine oil,brake oil etc) from the engine bay and entered the cabin through the ac ducts.
@aza:be careful near water .
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Old 4th September 2006, 14:34   #13
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Hmmm, but don't people realise when this happens?

There must have been some indication that something somwhere doesn't smell right.

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Old 4th September 2006, 14:48   #14
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Hey, Well for one it definitely is a tragic incident specially as two innocent children were involved . May their soul rest in peace ...

But coming to the main point ..as to why did it happen ?? Well, the manual of most cars will say that if you running the AC on for long periods of time while idling .. keep the fresh air vent open as that will prevent from the same air being circulated inspite of getting contaminated with harmful elements ( even I didnt know about this till a year back and have personally slept with the AC with fresh air vent close for about 6 hrs -- Im still alive and drinking beer ) , so dunno why or how that happened .

Also when a human starts to suffocate , e feels it -- it aint a cyanide effect , and so when they must have started to feel the choking effect , why didnt someone open the windows ?? And it aint possible that all 4 ( actually lets forget the poor kids ) choked all of a sudden and at the same point of time ..

If you hear the family talk .. they had just biought a new car -- shifting from a naturally air conditioned mode of transport to a bigger button operated air conditioned transport system leads to a lot of stupid things happening and this is one of them .... though I still feel there has to be more to it .

Questions that need to be answered --

1) Its claimed that water had entered the car -- at that point why didnt the man panic and think of steppingt out for help ?
2) Today a mobile is more imp than a car or even food -- so did none of them carry a mobile .. and if they did why didnt they call family/friends from their mobile ??
3) 4 feet of water -- anybody who has experienced that kind of situation will know that keeping the engine running in a situation like that aint easy ... and not every driver knows how to !! Incase he knew ... which I doubt why wud he park surrounded by water ?? If he didnt ... then his car wud have stalled and no gases cud be emitted by the car .. so where did the gas come from ??
4) Why do people blame autocop for not allowing the doors to open -- If the door refused to open , wat about the windows ?? And if windows were powered and water got in , blah blah blah ... why are such cars allowed to be manufactured ?? Or atleast it shud be advertised like cigarette packets -- CAUTION -- POWER WINDOWS MAY ENDANGER YOUR LIFE !!

Or maybe they were just destined to move on that way .... anyone seen ' FINAL DESTINATION ' series .... U cant cheat death !!!

Sad incident but something that needs to be pondered over ............

Cheers

Last edited by khaadu75 : 4th September 2006 at 14:50.
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Old 4th September 2006, 14:55   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by khaadu75
2) Today a mobile is more imp than a car or even food -- so did none of them carry a mobile .. and if they did why didnt they call family/friends from their mobile ??
That's the one that defies logic - they DID have a mobile I think cos I read that they called up someone to tell them that they couldn't make it for the dinner they were going to because of the heavy rain....!
Quote:
Originally Posted by khaadu75
3) 4 feet of water -- anybody who has experienced that kind of situation will know that keeping the engine running in a situation like that aint easy ... and not every driver knows how to !! Incase he knew ... which I doubt why wud he park surrounded by water ?? If he didnt ... then his car wud have stalled and no gases cud be emitted by the car .. so where did the gas come from ??
Yeah, and I can't figure out why someone would park by the side of the road in 4 feet of water instead of turing back & heading the way they came from...surely the 4 feet of water didn't suddenly happen, if I drove into it, I would try & get out of it rather than wait by the side of the road.

Well, unanswered questions, will remain unanswered I suppose because most of the stuff in the press is pure conjecture
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