The Zoie Foundation
PO Box 215
Anthony, KS 67003
620-842-5613
620-842-3757
thezoiefoundation
@cyberlodge.com

KIDSNCARS.ORG

Power Windows: Senseless killer
with simple solutions

Electric power windows are a decades-old convenience feature that most drivers take for granted. Millions of parents use them every day, but few know how dangerous these devices can be to children when not equipped with proper safeguards.

Since their introduction into the U.S. market (without any safety controls) in the late 1950s and early 1960s, power windows have repeatedly been the instruments of death and/or serious physical injury to children and others.

A recent study by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis released in 1997 estimates that about 500 people are treated in hospital emergency rooms annually for power window related injuries.  Half of those treated in 1997 for such injuries were under the age of six.

According to Robert M. N. Palmer, "The real tragedy is that hundreds of children are hurt each year, and over 40 have been killed over the last two decades by power windows, and the domestic automobile manufacturers simply do not care. They continue to make all power window decisions based purely on styling with no concern for safety, even though it would cost them almost nothing to make power windows completely safe for children."

Death by strangulation... in an instant

The accidental activation of power windows has resulted in the deaths of dozens of children and thousands more have been injured over the course of their history. In almost every case, the child died from strangulation after becoming lodged between the window and the frame.

If a child activates a window accidentally, the consequences can be instantaneous and often tragic. In as little as two seconds, an inadvertently activated power window can clamp down on a child's head, neck or other body part, causing severe injury or death.

How much pressure can a power window exert?  Enough to raise the body of a small child. The mechanics of an electricpower window are very simple. By applying a small two pound force on a power window toggle switch, the window motor is activated to exert an upward raising force of between 50-80 pounds. Since only eight to 12 pounds of force is needed to raise the average car window, the excess available force (40-70 pounds) is more than enough to lift and strangle a child between the glass and the upper window frame.

This deadly arithmetic is hardly unknown to U.S. automakers.  In fact, a May 18, 1990 Ford Submission to NHTSA regarding power windows quotes from a 1978 University of Heidleberg studies (87-10-No3) which concluded that a 10 kg load is sufficient to suffocate or injure an infant.

These senseless, preventable deaths, which stretch back to the introduction of power windows in the early 1960s, continue unabated to the present day:

•	1962: The three-year-old son of Detroit's Mayor Cavanaugh was nearly strangled by the tailgate power window on a Dodge Station Wagon.
•	1967: A power window killed a three-year-old Wilmington, Delaware, girl, Kathleen Nockett.
•	1968: An eight year old Dunismoir, California, boy was strangled in the rear power window of a station wagon.
•	1968: A two-year-old boy in West Los Angeles died when his throat became caught in the power window of his parents' 1957 Lincoln.
•	1969: Kristin Meyers, 6, was strangled while playing in her parents' car.
•	1969: Two-year-old Kelly Chermock died after being comatose for six months after becoming entrapped in a power window.
•	1970: A six-year-old Philadelphia girl, Rosemary Walton, was strangled by a power window.
•	1987: Brian Carp, 12, was killed when his head became caught in the power window of the tailgate of his parents' Jeep Wagoneer.
•	1992: Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder's four-year-old daughter Kayla died from injuries suffered in a power window accident.
•	1992: A European media investigation found that 16 children had been killed and many more injured by power windows in the Fiat Tipo.
•	1993: In Wisconsin, Karen Kirwin, four years old, died from strangulation in the power window of a 1993 Chevy Silverado pick-up as her two brothers, ages one and three watched helplessly.
•	1994: Children died from injuries received in power windows in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and Anchorage, Alaska.
•	1996: A Springfield, New Jersey, child was killed.
•	1998: Power windows killed children in Iowa, Arizona and Florida.
•	1999: In Iowa, three-year-old Stephen Faulkner was killed when his head became caught in the window of his parents' 1996 Oldsmobile Regency 98.
•	1999: Three-year-old Yudai Seno of Matsudo, Japan, was killed after he stuck his head out of a car window and accidentally activated the control button.
•	2001: Destany Sprouse suffocated when her head became caught in the power window of her mother's 1996 Blazer.
•	2001-2002: Two children died in Kansas from power window entrapment, and a three-year old child suffered severe brain damage from entrapment in the power window of her mother's car.
•	2002: A 10-month-old child from Orilla, Ontario, Canada, was severely injured when his neck became caught in the power window of his grandmother's car. Acting quickly, the child's grandmother managed to free the boy before permanent injury could take place.
•	2002: Wintyr Cruz, of French Valley, California, was choked while his mother's boyfriend loaded the trailer of his Ford pick-up truck.  Cruz died two days later from the effects of the asphyxiation.
•	2003: April 15, 2003, 11-year-old Mitchell Johnson of Danville, IN, died after his neck became trapped by a power window in his family's 1998 Buick Regal.

Mitchell Johnson

April 15, 2003, 11-year-old Mitchell Johnson of Danville, Indiana, a fifth-grader at South Elementary School in Danville, grew bored and left a school musical program at which his brother, Elijah, 10, was performing. Mitchell asked his mother, Sheila Johnson, for the car keys so he could get his basketball.

About 20 minutes later, she found him inside the car with his neck caught in the window of the driver's-side door. The doors were locked and the key was in the ignition. The Hendricks County coroner's office ruled Mitchell died of accidental asphyxiation.

Zoie Gates

On November 3, 2001, 2½-year-old Zoie Gates was staying with her father while her mother Britt attended a Christian Women's Seminar in Oklahoma City.  Jay and Britt Gates own a cattle sale barn in Kansas, and on that day Zoie went with her father and uncle to the barn so the men could unload a cattle truck. In order to keep her safe from the truck traffic and cattle being unloaded, Jay left Zoie in the back seat of her uncle’s 2000 Ford F-250 pickup truck, with the windows down and the radio on. At some point Zoie apparently leaned partially out of the left rear passenger window.  In doing so, she inadvertently stepped or kneeled on the power window rocker switch on the armrest, and the power window rapidly rose, entrapping her neck with the glass across her throat. Within a few brief terrible moments, the little girl was strangled to death.

Damien Anthony

On December 2, 2001, 15-year-old Damien Anthony spent the whole day proudly washing his first car, a 1986 Merkur, at his home in Seminole, Oklahoma.  Around 4:00 p.m. Damien went into his house to eat, and then went back outside to continue working on his car.  Sometime later, Damien's father went out to where the car was parked, and discovered Damien hanging with his body outside of the car, and his neck entrapped by the power window in the driver's side door.  Apparently Damien had leaned in through the open window for some reason, and had inadvertently contacted the power window rocker switch on the center console, which caused the power window to rapidly raise, entrapping Damien's neck and left arm, with the glass across his throat.  Held fast by the glass on his throat, and unable to reach the center console switch with his entrapped arm, Damien was strangled to death.

•	The lack of an auto-reverse feature on American cars, similar to what is required in Europe.
•	The continued use of rocker or toggle-style power window switches, which create the potential for inadvertent activation of the window.

Power windows appeared on automobiles in the 1950s as a novelty feature.  In the 1960's, they gained prevalence as a luxury feature and were installed with increasing frequency on high-end models.  Today, power windows are available as an option on almost every vehicle sold in the United States.

For decades the American automotive industry has been aware of the dangers of power windows, but has arbitrarily chosen not to act. The history of their awareness of the problem goes back to the earliest days of power window usage.

One early highly publicized instance occurred literally in the American auto industry's own back yard. In 1962, Christopher Cavanaugh, the 3-year-old son of Detroit's Mayor was nearly strangled by the tailgate power window on a Dodge Station Wagon.

Recognizing the terrible toll being taken by power windows, Ralph Nader sent a letter in May of 1968 to William Haddon, Administrator of the National Highway Safety Board urging the NHSB to order a recall and require the immediate modification of power windows -- or at least to issue a public warning of the dangers. 

Unfortunately, Nader's suggestions were rejected. 

However, later that same year, the U.S. Government, due to numerous reported deaths and injuries, issued advisory warnings to the public regarding the dangers of power windows to children who were left alone in automobiles. This advisory, which was distributed to all major automobile manufacturers, as well as the public, even recommended that the dangers could be lessened by wiring power windows so they would not operate without the ignition switch being on.

The following year, in response to the known dangers of power windows, Haddon, who was then the head of the Federal Highway Administration, called for a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard "which will reduce, if not eliminate, the toll of deaths and injuries resulting from accidents involving power-operated windows." (FMVSS) (8-23-69; 34FR13608). 

Years later, American consumers are still waiting for a safety standard that lives up to that initial mandate.

In August of 1969, NHTSA issued two notices of proposed rulemakings designed to minimize the danger of electronic power windows.  Among the recommendations:

•	operation of power windows should be possible only with the ignition on, and
•	the use of "mechanisms that would interrupt, stop, or reverse the direction of windows when a predetermined force is exerted on an object interposed between the glazing and the frame channel.

NHTSA chose not to include in FMVSS 118 an auto-reverse device or auto-interrupt requirement for power windows, both safety features which had been recommended back in1969, claiming that there were technical challenges to be overcome and that a requirement for these devices was not justified "on the basis of safety benefits, cost effectiveness and economic impact."

In 1987, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed that an automatic reverse function be incorporated in certain power window systems.  The auto industry was resistant to this proposed requirement, however, and the NHTSA eventually only required automatic reverse on vehicles equipped with remote or keyless window actuation devices.

In that same year NHTSA had another opportunity to address, once and for all, the safety risks of power windows when the agency conducted an investigation into 140,000 Jeep Wagoneers and Cherokees after reports that several children had been killed after becoming caught in the vehicle's rear tailgate power window.

The investigation was initiated at the prodding of the Center for Auto Safety, which found that "[i]n each case, the electric power window continued to go up and closed against the child's neck or chest, strangling him or her."  As a result of the reports Chrysler recalled 180,000 vehicles for inspection.  This recall was little better than a show, as technicians merely tested the rear window to ensure that it was operating properly - without any safeguards!

A few years later, in 1992, a scandal emerged in Europe when a media investigation revealed that at least 16 children had been killed and many more injured in power window accidents involving the popular Fiat Tipo vehicle. The investigators were able to show that none other than the American government had advised Fiat of the dangers of power window devices as early as 1969.

Despite the Federal government's long recognition of the deadly potential of power windows, the needless loss of life continues because automobile manufacturers continue to produce power windows which they know are a danger to children and because the Federal government continues to ignore its responsibility to require automakers to initiate the needed safety changes. 

Auto-reverse a proven and economical technology:

Just as the dangers posed by power windows to children have been known for years, so too have been workable solutions that could easily prevent these senseless tragedies.  Patent information which addresses the safety of power windows has been available to Ford and other automakers for decades.

The first window-reversing patent (Patent 3,465,476) was issued in 1967, and in 1972 a French mechanism company was issued a reversing electrical switch patent (Patent 3,662,491). This patent clearly points out the hazards that are presented to a child's head and neck by a power window.  During the period 1980 to 1987, at least nine additional patents were issued addressing power window safety and window reversing mechanisms. 

Numerous technically feasible alternative designs were and are available that would have prevented these tragedies. 

Automatic power window reversing mechanisms exist in several forms, including optical sensors, which detect an object in the window path; voltage load buildup sensors, which reverse at contact with an obstruction; or infrared sensors, which reverse the window without contact.  Some Japanese vehicles made in the 1980's were equipped with windows that stop -but do not reverse - when they meet with resistance. 

A representative of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association has estimated that more than 80 percent of vehicles on the road in Europe are equipped with a power window auto-reverse feature, including vehicles sold by American manufacturers. 

The cost for this added safety feature is about $8 to $10 dollars per window, according to the president of the Brose Group, a Germany-based company that is one of the prime suppliers of auto-reverse technology in Europe. 

As of January 2002, General Motor's Cadillac line and the Lincoln LS are the only American-made vehicles (sold in the United States) that are equipped with an auto-reverse feature.   Oddly enough, many American manufacturers commonly include this feature on cars sold overseas, many times on the same models available in the United States.  They have simply chosen not to offer what should be a basic safety feature to North American consumers.

Are American parents being held to a higher standard - or are their children just being subjected to greater risk?

Switching the switches saves lives: 

Manufacturers have also been very slow to change the design of their power windows or switches so as to reduce the danger to our children.  Today the majority of American vehicles still use rocker or toggle switches to control power windows.  These switches, which rest on a central pivot, are flush or slightly raised above the armrest and are depressed or pushed forward to raise the windows. 

The unrecessed toggle switch is a dangerous and defective device, since it allows the release of so much deadly energy through relatively minimal accidental contact by a child's knee or foot. 

In a court deposition in the late 1990s, one of GM's engineers, Thomas Ankeny stated that, based on the incidents of children accidentally pressing the buttons, it would be safer to design a window that could go only down, never up, when the switch is pressed. 

The simplest and least expensive alternative design available was a pull up/push down power window switch (horizontal switch).  Such a device requires the user to deliberately pull upward on the switch to raise the window, thereby eliminating the likelihood of a child inadvertently activating the window though accidental contact. 

Pull up/push down power window switches are obviously technically feasible.  Many vehicle models from a number of manufacturers have been equipped with such switches: Eagle Talon, Eagle Summit, Toyota, Mazda, Ford, Lexus, Honda, Isuzu, Saab, Suzuki, Mitsubishi Eclipse, Acura, Chrysler Sebring, GM, Dodge Avenger, Hyundai, KIA, Infiniti and Volvo, just to name a few. 

The cost of such a switch would be virtually the same as the cost of the dangerous rocker or toggle used by all domestic automobile manufacturers.  There is no practical, monetary, or safety reason for any American automaker to persist in the use of toggle switches for window control in light of the documented risks of these switches to the safety of our children.

Not all automakers plead ignorance to this reality.  Some manufacturers have touted the added safety of their alternative switch design in company promotional materials.  A 1995 Mazda brochure states that "To raise a window, you lift a switch instead of pushing it ...This helps keep kids from leaning on a button and accidentally closing the window on themselves."

Ford Motor Company recently - and finally - began responding to this hazard by gradually re-introducing up/down switches on a few of its vehicles (Example: 2003 Lincoln Navigator).  Ford actually used push down/pull up switches on a number of its vehicles in the 1980s and even up to the 1994 model year but stopped installing them for purely styling reasons – with no consideration for safety according to recent deposition testimony of Bobby Bedi, a Ford Motor Company representative.

Excuses, Excuses... 

The automakers, when faced with this ongoing safety hazard, plead poverty and attempt to place responsibility and blame solely on the shoulders of the parents. They also use similar non-sensical excuses such as, "It doesn't happen all that much;" or "Consumers do not like up/down switches;" or "It's all styling."  Ford has even gone so far as to openly deny that its recent inclusions of the safer, recessed, push down/pull up style switches have anything to do with safety at all.

Ford's deceptive denials, however, contradict what L.W. Camp, an official at Ford Motor Company, wrote to the NHTSA in September of 1996 when he stated that, "In addition, the design of the front door power window control switches located on the door arm rests is such that closing these windows requires the switch to be pulled up and held....The intent of these design features is to minimize the chance of unintentional activation of power window closing that could, with other switch design configurations, result from a child leaning or resting a foot on the switch."

Many of the aforementioned incidents occurred in the blink of an eye, with parents or guardians literally steps from the vehicle.  Known incidents involve children as old as 15.  Can  automakers reasonably maintain that his death, too, was entirely the result of parental inattention?  Do the incessant excuses from automakers hold up when placed against the persistent evidence of deadly harm?  Is styling more important than effecting the simple changes that could stop these needless deaths?

According to Palmer, "The United States automobile manufacturers would rather blame mothers for leaving their children in their cars, (something they have known parents do for over four decades) than spend pennies to make power windows safe. The needless injury and death of our children by power windows would stop today if the car companies cared as much about our children as they do styling."

Woefully, recalcitrant manufacturers have been slow to change the design of their power windows or switches so as to reduce the danger to our children.  And meanwhile, children across the country and around the world continue to be exposed to this danger, and manufacturers  continue to be responsible for their injuries and deaths. 

For more specific information on automobile safety involving children, please visit: kidsncars.org

(04/18/03)