Random People Who Died from Catastrophic Car Malfunctions (16 items)

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  (#9) Locked in a Death Trap

  James Rogers, 72, had just finished breakfast when he got into his dream car: a 2007 Corvette. Suddenly, the car lost power and the automatic locks wouldn't work. Rogers couldn't get out of the car, and ultimately died due to heat exhaustion.

  Authorities explained a cable became loose in the Corvette, which caused the lock to malfunction. Corvette has a manual lock release on the driver's side floorboard, but Rogers was unaware of it.
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  (#5) Fatal Hayride

  Halloween is usually a night full of harmless fun, but for visitors at Harvest Hill Farms in Maine, a night in 2014 turned into a real life nightmare.

  The farm's Haunted Hayride took a horrifying turn when a mechanical issue caused the Jeep towing a tractor full of people to lose control. The ride was carrying 22 passengers when the Jeep sped down a hill and crashed into a tree. All passengers were thrown from the trailer, and one of them died.

  Cassidy Charette, 17, suffered fatal injuries from the accident, and her boyfriend was also seriously injured. 
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  (#7) Gas Tank Explosion

  Lily Gray was driving her Ford Pinto down the California Freeway when her car was hit from behind. The impact caused the Pinto's gas tank to explode, engulfing the car in flames. Gray died, and her passenger, Richard Grimshaw, was severely injured.

  Grimshaw filed a lawsuit against Ford Motor Company. He was awarded over $127 million in damages. 
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  (#10) Carbon Monoxide Deaths

  Pasquale and Rina Fontanini were unaware of the danger accumulating in their garage as they slept. The pair had a 2013 Lincoln MKS, which included a key-less ignition common in newer vehicles. Unfortunately, the ignition was triggered and turned the car on.

  Carbon monoxide filled the garage and made its way into the couple's home. The pair died from poisoning. The tragedy brought attention to an alarming rise in key-less entry malfunction deaths - at least 12 have been counted.

  Sean Kane, founder of Safety Research & Strategies, told the Chicago Tribune, "Keyless ignition has upended the relationship between the driver and the car... It's created a scenario where you can easily leave a vehicle running and not know it."
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  (#1) Anton Yelchin

  • Actor

  Twenty-seven-year-old Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin died at his home in Los Angeles in 2016 after being struck by his own car. He was standing behind his Jeep Grand Cherokee when it suddenly rolled backward down his steep driveway and pinned him to his brick mailbox and security gate. Investigators said that the car was in neutral when the accident occurred, although they weren't sure why he got out of the car. It turns out, the Grand Cherokee was the subject of a recall. Other owners filed complaints and cited injuries, though Yelchin's death was the first fatality.
  
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  (#4) Defective Ignition Switch

  It took General Motors over 10 years to fix faulty ignition switches in their vehicles, which were responsible for at least 124 fatalities. GM eventually recalled over 30 million cars, which would shut off while driving and fail to deploy airbags.

  GM's failure to respond quickly to vehicle issues led to tragedy in 2010. On Brooke Melton's 29th birthday, the Chevy Cobalt she was driving stalled, spun out into another vehicle, and flipped 15 feet into a creek. Melton died from the crash.

  Melton's family sued GM over the defect, which led to the recall of millions of cars and ultimately saved the lives of other drivers.
  

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