Toddler Dies in Power Window

[binary]

http://www.forbes.com/work/fee....htmlI've been searching like mad to find out what kind of dang car this was.European laws mandate push/pull toggles like we have in our Vibe/Matrix power windows to prevent such accidents.It sucks the government will pass "do not annoy" laws, but nothing that would prevent this accident from happening over and over again.Note: I don't blame the manufacturer for this death... this is the parents fault for leaving this child in the car.Note again: DRAT - wrong thread. Please someone move this quickly... so I don't get a ton of flack!

[joatmon]

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/b...9.htmQuote »According to police, Waite parked the borrowed Monte Carlo in front of the clinic. The father turned off the car, but left the ignition on to listen to the radio. He then fell asleep while Thomaris sat in the back. The child was not in a car seat, police saidhttp://cbs4.com/topstories/loc....htmlQuote »Investigators say the engine of the 2 Door White Monte Carlo was not running, but the ignition was turned on enabling the radio and windows to be operational.

[Mase]

Stuff like this is also the reason why we dont have auto up, or retained window power, plus a mid-way stop in the moon roof. And you can't open the rear doors without first unlatching the lock unlike the front.

[mcgusto82]

this is horrible. however i don't blame the father. he already feels like crap i bet.my 9 month oild is already a squirmy (removed). i can only imagine how bad it'll get. kids don't like sitting still in a non moving car. any parent would've let them out the car seat and let him play in the back.like the news report said. a tragic accident. labeling blame for the sake of the third party is not alright.

[mcgusto82]

weait, i just read the monte carlo part. that's a two door. a huge window also. this is really interesting.

[binary]

so this car had the toggle forward/back window controlls.sigh... again, the reason GM is forced to use toggle up/down controlls in cars sold over seas.

[vibebob]

my 02 VW Golf had a window sensor in that if anything got in the way of it closing, the window would automaticly open.

[Stang2Vibe]

Quote, originally posted by binary »so this car had the toggle forward/back window controlls.sigh... again, the reason GM is forced to use toggle up/down controlls in cars sold over seas.Before I go into the window switches thing, I have to hit on something that was mentioned earlier in the thread. The Monte Carlo, regardless of the production year, was always a 2 door car, with pretty long doors and windows in those doors. The child would have had to climb into the front seat to operate the window from the switch on the forward part of the passenger door. This means that he would have also had to climb into the front seat without waking the father. There's no way that a child could reach the switch and have his head out the window from the back seat. This seems fishy to me. The boy could only be 2-3 feet from his father when he pinched his neck in the window. He had to be kicking the door or doing something that would have made enough noise to wake the father. It just seems too strange. There is no production year that I can recall where a Monte Carlo had a power rear sail panel window. They were all fixed in place as best as I can recall.Now, as for the type of switches, this depends on the model year. Monte Carlo's were produced from 1970 to 1988, then again from 1995 to present (2006). In the older cars, ('70-'77) all the models probably used horizontally mounted conventional toggle switches for the power windows, built into the front armrests. For '78-'88 models, they were probably all mounted vertically directly to the door panel, but still conventional toggle switches. For '95-'99 models they were plastic rocker toggles that were again mounted horizontally in the front armrests. And for '00-present models I think they are all conventional toggles again, that are mounted horizontally in the front armrests.I really don't think the switch design would have made any difference in this case. Personally, I hate the push-pull toggles that the Vibe has. They are difficult to operate while driving and impossible to see at night, both of which can lead to a dangerous situation. And after owning my Vibe for over 3 years, I still get up and down confused regularly. Their design would not prevent a 2-3 year old from operating them. My ex's nephew has already figured out by the age of 2 1/2 how to start his mom's Honda Odyssey minivan and knows that the brake pedal has to be pressed in order to move the gear selector lever in addition to pushing in the button on the side of the lever. Nobody told him this or showed him, he learned just by watching his mom drive the van. If he can do all that, the push/pull toggle window switches surely won't stop him. Pressure safety switches (like the ones previously mentioned) and attentive parents would prevent accidents like this, not the horrible and potentially dangerous push/pull toggle switches.