The push-button starter that allows drivers to keep their key-fobs in their pockets is a popular feature with consumers. The flaw in the technology though is that engines can be so quiet these days, especially with hybrid vehicles, that drivers park their vehicles in a garage attached to the house, and forget to push the starter button off.
Dozens of people in the U.S. have died because as the engine continues to run, the carbon monoxide gets into the house through an air duct and asphyxiates the people inside.
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) on Friday, U.S. announced introduction of the Protecting Americans from the Risks of Keyless Ignition Technology (PARK IT) Act “to protect consumers from the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning and vehicle rollaways associated with keyless ignition technology in vehicles. The PARK IT Act requires the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to finalize a rule that vehicles automatically shut off after a period of time to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, and a rule that sets a performance standard to prevent rollaway.
“NHTSA’s inexplicable failure to act has led to fatal consequences,” said Blumenthal. “This legislation will require NHTSA to do what it should have done nearly eight years ago— protect American drivers and families from injury and death by finalizing some basic safety standards that compel automakers to address the risk of carbon monoxide and rollaways associated with keyless ignitions.”
U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a co-sponsor of the legislation said “With deaths attributable to keyless ignitions mounting, it’s time for NHTSA to set safety standards to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning and vehicle rollaways.”
Keyless ignitions are now standard in over half of the 17 million new vehicles sold annually in the United States. In May 2018, The New York Times reported that at least 28 deaths and 45 injuries since 2006 attributable to carbon monoxide poisoning caused by vehicles with keyless ignitions inadvertently left idling. The drivers involved in these incidents range in age from their 20s to their 80s. Since that report, there have been at least five additional deaths.
There has been a rule on keyless ignition at NHTSA since 2011 that has not been finalized. Since then, though, GM and Ford have both developed auto shut-offs on their keyless ignition equipped vehicles that shut the engine down after a short time of the engine idling . Other carmakers have not followed suit. And the industry's two principal lobby groups have not pressed NHTSA to greenlight a uniform rule.
The PARK IT Act has been endorsed by: Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Center for Auto Safety, Safety Research and Strategies, and Consumer Reports.
The bill has a good chance of passing. While the last few Federal budgets have starved NHTSA of money to complete their tasks on pending rules, there is not any particular partisan divide on the rule. And there is no known opposition to it in the Trump Administration. Indeed, it is the kind of simple, straightforward good-deed kind of legislation that should go through by the end of the year.
The hitch? NHTSA is an agency of the Department of Transportation. The DOT Secretary is Elaine Chao, wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The bill could be seen as making Chao look bad for doing little in the area of auto safety. Her tenure is under the microscope for granting Republican donors grants for infrastructure grants.
On the same day the new bill was introduced, the Governor's Highway Safety Association reported that 2018 was the deadliest year for pedestrians since 1990.
