News, No Escape: California Family Sues BMW After Teen Dies in Locked Car (vehicle, German)
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The family of a 14-year-old Central California girl is suing BMW North America and a local school district over the teenager’s heat stroke death inside a locked vehicle from which there was allegedly no escape.
While an average of 38 children left alone in cars die from heat each year in the U.S., deaths of older children or teenagers are exceedingly rare. A database assembled by the nonprofit Kids and Cars revealed only one other case – more than a decade ago - in which a teenager 14 or older died of heat in a locked vehicle.
Never heard of car that you had to have a key in the ignition to unlock the doors.
The lawsuit alleges that the design of the “double-locking mechanism” was faulty and presented a “substantial danger” to passengers because it did not allow them to unlock the vehicle from inside. Furthermore, it said, the car’s horn could not be operated without the key being inserted in the ignition and that the vehicle was not equipped with an emergency release lever.
If the car really could not be manually unlocked from the inside, that is incredibly dangerous and they absolutely should sue and win. But the article wasn't clear. It said there was no electronic way to open the car from the inside. Can it be manually opened by pushing/pulling the door lock? I've never seen a car where you couldn't do that.
Most cars have those smart fobs and lock down when it is over 30ft away. The car still should be openable from the inside. Could've been avoidable; rolled down windows, a not so stupid kid, trunk pass through...
To some of the people who responded to the post, READ THE FREAKING ARTICLE!!!!!
If you bothered to use your brain and read the article, you would have read that if the car was locked from the outside, there was no way to unlock the car from the inside. Though this was clearly spelled out in the owners manual, this old BMW didn't have the owners manual so the teens didn't know about this anti theft feature.
Never heard of car that you had to have a key in the ignition to unlock the doors.
The lawsuit alleges that the design of the “double-locking mechanism” was faulty and presented a “substantial danger” to passengers because it did not allow them to unlock the vehicle from inside. Furthermore, it said, the car’s horn could not be operated without the key being inserted in the ignition and that the vehicle was not equipped with an emergency release lever.
My German car (an older one) has a horn that requires a key, too, and it's a "feature" I hate. Do other cars require keys nowadays?
As for getting out of a car in a hurry (e.g. submerged), I purchased a tool that breaks the side windows, and also cuts the seatbelt.
It's like the two below (I store one on the floor of the front seatwell, under a pillow so it doesn't fly around):
Those window breakers are so cheap it's a great idea to have them even with the minute chances you'll ever need them. You can get two on Amazon for less than $6
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