Lexus Lawsuit Over Death

pj8708 · February 8, 2011

Lexus key less start results in the death of driver according to a lawsuit filed recently against Toyota. Apparently, if you don't shut off your Lexus when you get out, it's the cars fault when you die of carbon dioxide poisoning a short time latter.....!!

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/02/07/suit-alleges-toyota-keyless-start-to-blame-for-carbon-monoxide-d/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+weblogsinc%2Fautoblog+%28Autoblog%29

Paul

LEXIRX330 · February 8, 2011

Lexus key less start results in the death of driver according to a lawsuit filed recently against Toyota. Apparently, if you don't shut off your Lexus when you get out, it's the cars fault when you die of carbon dioxide poisoning a short time latter.....!!

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/02/07/suit-alleges-toyota-keyless-start-to-blame-for-carbon-monoxide-d/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+weblogsinc%2Fautoblog+%28Autoblog%29

Paul

As you can imagine I am against frivolous lawsuits...but I wonder why the car wasn't designed with some sort of shutdown feature...my last car with remote strait would kill the engine after 15-20 mins? But if she had used a regular key...in a regular car...unless she turned it off the car would continue to run...so it's kind of the same thing...

SW03ES · February 8, 2011

I mean...it yells at you pretty loud when you get out and shut the door with it running. And the engine isn't quiet from the outside when its idling...especially in a garage with a closed door. You'd have to be daffy to walk around it in a garage and not know it was running. Unless it was a hybrid or something...

pj8708 · February 8, 2011

Any death or accident is tragic, and in this case for someone to die when they were totally unaware of the other parties endangering behavior so they couldn't even take eluding action is double so. But, for me, the car is/was not the problem. At some point it seems as though we have to use some common sense and realize that a machine cannot be engineered that can foresee or respond to EVERY conceivable situation. The human has to take responsibility for their actions. Yes, anything can be improved, but the car beeps loudly when you get out and take the keys already, and yes, it could be made to shut it self off after 10 minutes or so. However, when it's -6' below as it is right now and I want to run in the house and leave the car to warm up, it needs to run longer than 10 minutes and I will lock it and take the keys with me while it warms up.

The mystery about this situation, is that it is my understanding that with current emission standards, people who are attempting to commit suicide by sitting in their cars in the garage are unable to be successful. There is little if any CO2 in todays emissions and the person can not be asphyxiated. This information comes from a psychiatrist. How then was this man killed?

I really like the key less start/stop feature, and I would hate to go back to the mechanical key.

Just my two cents worth.

Paul

SW03ES · February 8, 2011

I agree, you can't design something to guard against anything someone could possibly do wrong with it. If you did that...we would never have any new technologies. When you get out of the car it goes BEEP...and its a loud mechanical machine banging and clicking away when you walk around it. To me...I don't see how you could leave it running...