Photo: FoxNews
A combination of factors created a deadly context that claimed the life of a woman from Washington. She and her daughter-in-law were found unconscious in a car with 4 coolers of dry ice in the backseat.
Dry ice in itself is not deadly. However, since it’s carbon dioxide in solid form and it turns into gas when it comes into contact with air, thus displacing oxygen, it can be deadly in enclosed spaces without proper ventilation.
This seems to have been the case in the incident last week. The woman was visiting her son and his wife, when her daughter-in-law offered to drive her home, People Magazine reports. The son remained home and eventually went to bed, perhaps thinking that his wife and mother had a bit more catching up to do.
He woke up the next morning at 4 a.m. to see that neither the wife nor the car he would do business in wasn’t back home. He went out searching for them and found the car some distance from their house. He used a rock to break one of the windows and found the 2 women unconscious.
According to the police report, there were 4 coolers with dry ice on the backseat. His mother died of suffocation and his wife is in the hospital, still in critical condition.
“Somehow or another, the fumes escaped from the coolers,” Det. Ed Troyer of Pierce County Sheriff’s Department tells the media. He insists the tragedy was the result of a combination of factors.
“Possibly because it was so hot outside and because he had a newer car. It probably had better sealing and less ventilation… This all happened due to a lot of circumstances lining up. Dry ice by itself isn’t going to kill anybody,” Troyer adds.
With all this, cases of death from exposure to dry ice in enclosed spaces do exist. One man died in 2006 from exposure to dry ice fumes, and he too owned a delivery business. Another man died after hiding into a large container with dry ice.
This seems to have been the case in the incident last week. The woman was visiting her son and his wife, when her daughter-in-law offered to drive her home, People Magazine reports. The son remained home and eventually went to bed, perhaps thinking that his wife and mother had a bit more catching up to do.
He woke up the next morning at 4 a.m. to see that neither the wife nor the car he would do business in wasn’t back home. He went out searching for them and found the car some distance from their house. He used a rock to break one of the windows and found the 2 women unconscious.
According to the police report, there were 4 coolers with dry ice on the backseat. His mother died of suffocation and his wife is in the hospital, still in critical condition.
“Somehow or another, the fumes escaped from the coolers,” Det. Ed Troyer of Pierce County Sheriff’s Department tells the media. He insists the tragedy was the result of a combination of factors.
“Possibly because it was so hot outside and because he had a newer car. It probably had better sealing and less ventilation… This all happened due to a lot of circumstances lining up. Dry ice by itself isn’t going to kill anybody,” Troyer adds.
With all this, cases of death from exposure to dry ice in enclosed spaces do exist. One man died in 2006 from exposure to dry ice fumes, and he too owned a delivery business. Another man died after hiding into a large container with dry ice.
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