2 Investigators: The Dangers Of 'Keyless' Cars
(CBS) -- What starts your car: a fob and button or an actual key?
Depending how you answer, there could be a danger you need to know about. CBS 2's Dave Savini looks at the problem and potential solutions.
Thirteen-year-old Erin Damolaris is lucky to be alive. She fell ill after a car was accidentally left running in her family's garage overnight. The fumes invaded her bedroom, which sits above the garage.
"I kept on getting more and more dizzy," the teen says.
The car had a keyless ignition. After parking, the girl's stepfather pressed the button to turn it off, but not hard enough, and the quietly running engine never shut off. The next morning, Erin woke up sick.
"It was scary because I didn't know what was happening," she says.
Her 11-year-old sister, Shealyn, woke their mom.
"When I heard, 'Take Erin to the hospital,' that's when I got really scared," Shealyn says. "Because I thought something horrible was happening."
An ambulance was called and Erin was hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning. She says she feels lucky to be alive.
At least 18 related deaths have been reported nationwide, and hundreds of near-misses, due to keyless ignition mistakes: vehicles accidentally left running and filling homes with deadly fumes.
"It's happening hundreds of times a day in America, there's no doubt about it," says attorney Ted McNobola, who filed a lawsuit involving the deaths of Pasquale and Rina Fontanini of Highland Park.
Their keyless ignition car, accidentally left running all night, was blamed in the couple's death. Their son, Cesare Fontanini, a Highland Park fire lieutenant, found them.
"He went in, found his father face down," their attorney says. "He started CPR on his father."
Critics say there should be some failsafe for these kinds of vehicles.
"I think it's really important that there should be some sort of automatic shut down after a certain amount of time," says April Warren, Shealyn's mother.
Some automakers have added software to turn off the car when the fob is not in it. Other manufacturers have added a beeping or audio alarm to warn drivers they have walked away with the fob but failed to turn off the ignition.
"I think it's just terrible how people die from this and there should be an easier way to just turn it off completely," Erin Damolaris says.
Ten automakers have been sued over this issue.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been working, since 2011, to create new keyless ignitions rules. NHTSA wants to standardize these systems and require an audible warning to drivers. Some vehicles already do this.
