Tragic vacation deaths narrowly avoided?
September 5, 2005 1:50 AM   Subscribe

If two people sleep overnight in the trunk of a brand new sedan, could they suffocate?

My wife and I were camping a few weeks ago and arrived at the site very late. Rather than set up a tent in the dark, we folded the back car seats forward and tried to sleep in the trunk area, with our heads on the folded seat backs (it was very uncomfortable). But then we started wondering if we could suffocate, and it seemed possible enough that we got up and pitched the tent. A friend said we were being silly, and she had slept (in the front?) of her SUV all week, but my car (2005 Chevy Malibu) seems very sealed from road noise, and we didn't have the air conditioning on, and people suffocate in trunks don't they?.. So could we have died?
posted by crabintheocean to Health & Fitness (13 answers total)
 
Response by poster: I know that people sleep in their cars all the time, but I was worried that there was something vital they *always* did (like crack open a window) that I didn't know about. And we didn't want to open a window because there were so many mosquitos.
posted by crabintheocean at 1:55 AM on September 5, 2005


I don't know the details of your particular car, but most models with air conditioning will be airtight. You might not have suffocated overnight — you'd have woken up in distress first — but if you had been locked in the car with no way to open a door or window, then yes, you would eventually have suffocated.
posted by MinPin at 3:19 AM on September 5, 2005


In most cases I'd say it's quite unlikely. Even with a regular air conditioned car, it's not an absolute airtight seal as far as I understand it. It's not going to make you feel too good in the morning though. Best bet is definitely to leave a window or two left open just a tiny crack.
posted by wackybrit at 4:15 AM on September 5, 2005


Oh please. EVERY car has vents to the atmosphere, even if it's air conditioned. I think it would be flat out impossible to suffocate sitting in a car, even with all the windows rolled up, even if you sat there for days. People have been sleeping in cars for decades, and this is the first time I've ever heard of someone thinking that you would need to crack a window.

You hear about people suffocating in trunks because they aren't designed for people and are sometimes sealed. But in the case the poster described you are clearly still in the passenger compartment since the seats are down.
posted by Rhomboid at 5:19 AM on September 5, 2005


I also think the suffocating in trunks thing would have to do with a car driving around and carbon monoxide getting sucked into the trunk.
posted by Eekacat at 6:26 AM on September 5, 2005


I have slept in cars and vans without ever opening the window and have thus far lived to tell the tale. YMMV.
posted by dial-tone at 7:21 AM on September 5, 2005


first, you could have opened the vents in your car - there's a filter to prevent dust from getting in the car.

second, no matter the 'new car smell', it is not toxic.

you would not have suffocated.
posted by seawallrunner at 7:26 AM on September 5, 2005


Seawallrunner beat me to it. Just set the AC so that the vents are opened (turn off recirculation) and you should be fine.
posted by oddman at 7:42 AM on September 5, 2005


You could have cracked the window if you were really worried. That said, cars are definetly not "air tight". If they were, you would suffocate if your AC were set to 'recirculate' which most of the time they would be.
posted by delmoi at 8:27 AM on September 5, 2005


Unless you're 007, it shouldn't be a problem.

Experience tells me it's fine, but NOT comfortable. Just crack a window.
How quiet your car interior is has a lot to do with the absorbtion of road vibration, aerodynamics, and construction of the shell.
Man... the liability would be insane if automakers were bent on making air-tight vehicles.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 10:49 AM on September 5, 2005


Response by poster: hi, this is the other wife. for the record, we were not worried about the car being airtight, we were worried about the lack of circulation. if you're 50 feet underwater trying to breathe through a 51-foot snorkle, you're going to suffocate -- not because the other end of the snorkle is sealed, but simply because fresh air is too far away and you couldn't circulate it all the way down the pipe. likewise, even if the car isn't airtight, it seemed like just our inhaling and exhaling wouldn't be enough to pull fresh air all the way in the vents and push the CO2 all the way out, especially with the filters and obstructions blocking free passage of the air.

the second thing we were worried about was whether one would wake up in distress if slowly suffocated over the course of 8 hours, or if one would just not wake up. now i realize we would have woken up. thanks mefi!
posted by crabintheocean at 12:27 PM on September 5, 2005


second, no matter the 'new car smell', it is not toxic.

That's somewhat debatable.
posted by gooddoggy at 7:53 PM on September 5, 2005


If you drove your new well-made sedan into a river, would water find a way in? Yes, as we learned in NOLA this week. And so, air would find its way in too.
posted by clh at 9:21 PM on September 5, 2005


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