Advertisement Authorities: 'Horrific' dry ice accident leaves woman dead, another in critical condition Share Shares Copy Link Copy Authorities in Washington state say a woman is dead after a strange dry ice incident.KOMO reports police found the body of a suffocated elderly woman in a vehicle near Tacoma Friday. According to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, an ice cream salesman kept coolers of dry ice in the back of his car. Investigators said his wife borrowed the car to take his mother home.“His mom and his wife got in the vehicle to give his mother a ride home. Somehow or another, the fumes escaped from the coolers,” said Det. Ed Troyer, with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.The man called 911 hours later when he found both women and the vehicle on the side of the road. The News Tribune reports the man broke the rear driver’s side window with a rock, opened the car, pulled his wife out and called 911. The medical examiner said the man's 77-year-old mother likely died of asphyxiation caused by the dry ice, which is simply carbon dioxide in its solid form. His 51-year-old wife remains in critical condition. “At this point, we’re just looking at this as horrific accident,” Troyer said. Investigators said by itself, dry ice is not deadly, but can be dangerous. According to the University of Washington Department of Environmental Health and Safety, dry ice becomes a gas when exposed to air. In small, non-ventilated spaces, too much carbon dioxide can be lethal. The invisible, odorless gas takes the place of oxygen, making it impossible to breathe.“Possibly because it was so hot outside and because he had a newer car. It probably had better sealing and less ventilation. It was a combination of things that went terribly wrong,” said Troyer. "This all happened due to a lot of circumstances lining up. Dry ice by itself isn't going to kill anybody. "Neighbor Bill Reed told reporters the entire incident has been unsettling. "I didn't realize it was so dangerous," he said. Death by dry ice is unusual, but the Washington Post reports some other instances have been recorded by medical journals. In one case, a 59-year-old man stepped into a walk-in freezer containing dry ice and went into cardiac arrest. The article’s authors concluded that his death “illustrates the lethal consequences of improper storage of dry ice and the need to consider toxic environmental exposure as a cause of sudden cardiac arrest.”<doc-sep>According to the Tacoma News Tribune, the woman and her daughter-in-law were found in a car early Friday morning in University Place. The elderly woman had been visiting her 51-year-old son on Thursday when the daughter-in-law agreed to drive the woman back home to Lakewood. The Pierce County Sheriff's Office believes the women were overcome by carbon dioxide emanating from the dry ice. The car was used by the elderly woman's son for ice cream deliveries. The car was also brand new, according to the News Tribune, and so it held the carbon dioxide gas well due to new sealing.<doc-sep>A Washington woman died and another is in serious condition after a freak accident caused by dry ice inside a new car. Pierce County officials say the wife of a Dippin' Dots deliveryman was driving her mother home late Thursday night when fumes from dry ice coolers in the car created a toxic mix, The News Tribune reports. Dry ice, often used when shipping perishable goods, is a solid form of carbon dioxide that can displace oxygen, University of Washington's Environmental Health and Safety department notes. It shouldn't be stored in closed containers or spaces. Early the next morning, the deliveryman found his wife and his mother-in-law unconscious inside the car, parked a few blocks away from his home. He broke his wife out of the car using a rock and called 911, the Tribune reports. His mother-in-law, a 77-year-old woman, was pronounced dead at the scene and his wife was in critical condition as of Friday. The county medical examiner said the death was likely suffocation, KOMO News reports. “He had four coolers full of dry ice because he delivered Dippin’ Dots to various locations,” county sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer told the Tribune. “He recently got a new car. The newer car probably had better sealing.” Deaths linked to dry ice are rare, but it has been a factor in the past. In 2016, a woman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that she believed her brother, who owned a delivery business, died from dry ice exposure following an unexplained coma. A 20-year-old man hiding in a dry ice factory container, avoiding confrontation, died from carbon dioxide intoxication, according to a 2009 article in the peer-reviewed Journal of Forensic Sciences. In recent years, cities have used chunks of dry ice to suffocate rats in urban areas. More:Death by dry ice: How cities are using a chilling killer to zap rats Follow Ashley May on Twitter: @AshleyMayTweets<doc-sep>
In a bizarre and tragic accident, a Washington state woman died when while riding in a car with four coolers of dry ice Two pieces of dry ice smoking against a dark background Credit: Chorboon Photo/Getty A 77-year-old woman from Washington state died early Friday morning after riding in a car with four coolers of dry ice in the back. The woman had been visiting her son, 51, and his wife, 51, on Thursday, according to local paper The News Tribune. Her daughter-in-law started to drive her home that night in her son’s car — he owned an ice cream delivery service and was carrying around dry ice for an upcoming order. When he woke up the next morning around 4 a.m. for work, he noticed the car was still gone. He found it a few blocks away along with his wife and his mother unconscious inside. After breaking the window open with a rock, he called 911. When EMTs arrived, they pronounced the man’s mother dead and took his wife to the hospital. She’s currently in critical condition. Their names have not yet been released. The medical examiner found the mother died of suffocation, local outlet KOMO News reports. Dry ice is carbon dioxide in its solid form, and it turns into gas when exposed to open air. The carbon dioxide can then displace oxygen in the air, which can cause difficulty breathing, loss of consciousness and death, according to The News Tribune. The fumes are especially dangerous in enclosed spaces. “Somehow or another, the fumes escaped from the coolers,” Det. Ed Troyer of Pierce County Sheriff’s Department told KOMO News, adding that it was likely a combination of factors that turned the dry ice lethal. “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.”