TUCSON, Ariz. (13 messages) – In July A toddler from Marana died in a hot car in front of his family’s home. Her father, Christopher Scholtes, is accused of murder and child abuse.
He claims he left his daughter sleeping in his SUV with the air conditioning on.
It raises questions about a relatively new safety feature that many people may not even know their car has.
There’s a good reason for it: It’s meant to protect people from carbon monoxide poisoning. Some cars can notify you when the engine shuts off, but the Marana police report shows Scholtes told police his phone wasn’t connected for notifications. According to the report, he also told cops he knew about his Acura MDX’s automatic engine shutdown because he experienced it in his parents’ pickup line.
No child should ever be left alone in a car. But this is certainly not the first story of an inattentive parent doing just that. So far this year, 20 children have died alone in cars across the country. The advocacy group Kids and Car Safety is tracking this.
Marana’s case is not the only one they have documented in which parents left the engine running and returned to find it was off.
“We should never rely on our car to keep going. Not just because of the automatic shut-off feature – what happens when the car runs out of gas?” says Amber Rollins, director of child and car safety.
Dozens of models have an automatic shutdown, not just the Acura MDX. Marana police reconstructed the circumstances of the overheated car’s death, checked the 20-minute shutdown feature and found the following phrase in the manual: Do not leave children unattended in the vehicle, especially in hot weather, as the heat inside the vehicle can be fatal. They tested it several times and except for one time the vehicle always turned off after about 20 minutes.
“How are people supposed to know? It’s very scary,” Rollins said.
In fact, the group advocates for automatic shutdown because they also document carbon monoxide poisoning. This and another child safety measure – occupant sensors – should be regulated under the Build Back Better Act 2021. In December, this bundle of proposed regulations will be two years overdue. That means there is currently no standard for automatic engine shutdown in a parked car.
And it is not always easy to find out When or If Your car will be turned off.
“After the Marana incident, I called the Acura dealer and asked them, ‘Does the MDX have this (feature)?’ They had to find out. So if the dealer doesn’t even know and the vehicle safety people don’t even know it could happen … I mean, it’s not something they tell you. Nobody reads their owner’s manual. We should,” Rollins said.
The Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did not respond to my request for comment, but simply referred me to their agenda, which shows the decision scheduled for May.
For those like Amber who are fighting for their safety, every day is dangerous.
“I’m terrified of these unintended consequences,” Rollins said.
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