Power Window Switches Can Kill Children

June 16, 2004 -- Matthew Chappell was serving in the Middle East with the U.S. Air Force when he got the bad news. His 4-year-old daughter was killed in an accident involving a car.

But the May 24 accident in Box Elder, S.D., had nothing to do with a collision. Instead, Hailee Chappell was caught and killed in a power window.

"It happened so fast and it's so silent that you don't know," said Jessica Chappell, the girl's mother. She says she had left Hailee and her little sister, Madison, in the car for just a few minutes and when she returned she thought Hailee was just playing.

"The next thing I know I go outside and I see my daughter's hair blowing in the wind," Jessica Chappell said. "She had rolled her head up in the window."

Hailee's father remembers receiving the horrible news, thousands of miles away.

"They told me that my daughter was at the hospital, and wasn't with us anymore," Matthew Chappell said.

Theirs isn't the only sad story. In March, 3-year-old Rian Brandt was killed in Delphi, Ind., by a power window. In the last year, power windows have killed at least seven more children, including a 3-year-old Dallas girl on June 6 and a 4-year-old Wisconsin boy on June 2. The list goes on, and the details of each case are tragically similar.

Since 1990, power windows have killed at least 36 children, according to Kids and Cars, a nonprofit group that tracks auto-safety issues involving children. A 1997 government study by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis estimated power windows sent nearly 500 people to emergency rooms in one year, and that half the victims were small children.

Power windows are no longer a luxury option. They are equipped in 80 percent of all cars sold today. But certain power window designs have safety experts concerned they could pose a life-threatening hazard for children. Car makers say children should never be left alone in any vehicle, and certainly not one with the keys in the ignition.

An Accidental Push

It has been more than six years since the January night when 3-year-old Steven Falkner climbed into the family car, without his parents, as it was warming up after church.

"He rolled the window down — that back passenger side window — to yell at some other kids that he saw and accidentally pushed the power window button with his knee," his father, Kevin Falkner said. "And the power window closed on his neck."

The incident cut off his oxygen supply and Steven died at a hospital in Ottumwa, Iowa, later that night.

After that devastating experience, his mother learned that the electrically powered windows installed in most cars today may not be safe for children, and she wants other parents to understand that the worst can happen.

"You no longer have your baby," Bethany Falkner said. "That's what the electric car windows did to my child. Our son died."

In a lawsuit, the Falkners blamed their son's death on the design of the power window switches in their car. The lawsuit has since been settled with the car maker admitting no liability. The company said: "Properly supervised children will not become trapped in the window of this vehicle."

But Steven's parents believe that the location and the type of switch that operates the windows played a role in the boy's death.

"I don't buy it, because if the power window button — the rocker switch — had been recessed or not been on the arm rest our child would be here today," Kevin Falkner said.

Switches Not Safe, Advocate Says

Janette Fennell, a consumer advocate for Kids and Cars, agrees that something is wrong in the design of window switches in many cars. "It's very easy just to bump into it inadvertently and the window will go up," Fennell said, demonstrating with one of the problem-type switches. "So what happens is a little one will have their head out the window and then their knee hits like right here."

Toggle or rocker switches mounted on a horizontal armrest are the type that can be activated accidentally, Fennell says. Toggle switches work when pushed forward or pulled back. Rocker switches are the type that move the glass up when you press one end of the switch, and down when you press the other.

Making matters worse, advocates say, most windows do not automatically reverse if they hit something on the way up. Lawyers suing car makers say the power windows can exert up to 80 pounds of pressure.

"That's how children are dying," Fennell said.

Automakers say parents should always buckle up children and supervise them around cars. They also say windows already have safety features.

For example, most power windows don't work without the key in the ignition, and many vehicles have a lockout feature. When it is activated, only the driver's side switch works.

General Motors, for instance, says that it has installed power window lockouts which, when activated, prevent passengers from operating the windows and allow only the driver to operate the power windows. Ford says it also offers a "bounce-back" feature that will not allow the window to close if there is an object in its path.

But children are continuing to get hurt, and Fennell says that there is no reason for it to happen anymore. "This is a product that has a fix," Fennell said. "The car companies know how to fix it. It doesn't even cost any more money."

Lever Switches, Auto Reverse Function Safer

Auto makers should install lever switches, which must be pushed down to make the window go down, and must be pulled up to raise the window, advocates say. "These power window switches are much safer, because when you want to put the window up you have to scoop your finger underneath and pull up," Fennell said.

Also, the auto reverse function is already available on some vehicles. If it detects that something is stuck in a car window it will reverse direction, releasing the object or person.

Advocates say automakers and government regulators have been aware of the issue for a long time. The most famous auto safety advocate of all, Ralph Nader, wrote a letter warning regulators about the danger of power windows in 1968.

Three decades later, from her home office in Kansas, Fennell — a mother of two — is picking up where Nader left off, organizing a grassroots effort via Kids and Cars.

"How many more kids have to die before someone just says, 'This is the regulation, every vehicle that you sell or lease in the United States has to have this feature?' " Fennell asks.

Tips For Parents

Parents should never leave children unsupervised in or near a car. Parents should never leave the keys in a car. Parents should use the lockout button when it is available. Remember that the windows are powerful and potentially dangerous, with up to 80 pounds of pressure as they roll up. To get more safety tips, and to learn more about keeping children safe around cars, go to www.kidsandcars.org

Consumer correspondent Greg Hunter and producer Andrew Paparella produced this story for Good Morning America.