Sisters call for alarms in cars

The sisters of a man who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in his car are campaigning for it to be a legal requirement for detectors to be fitted in UK vehicles.

Michael Barnard, 36, from Barrow, was found dead in August 2023 after he had been listening to music with the engine running and the gas had leaked from a hole in the exhaust.

Lucy and Rebecca Barnard are trying to raise awareness of what they call the “silent killer”.

Lucy Barnard said losing her brother was “one of the hardest things” she had faced.

More than 500 people have signed a petition set up by the sisters to alert people to the dangers of the gas, which kills about 60 people in the UK every year.

Miss Barnard said: “When my brother went for a drive that night he didn’t know his car would take his life and he died alone and that is something as a family we will never be able to come to terms with.

“In the UK cars are not legally required to carry carbon monoxide detectors and I want to change that.”

Carbon monoxide has no smell or colour and can cause serious illness, or death, if inhaled.

Car exhausts are checked for the level of carbon monoxide emissions during an MOT.

President of the charity CO-Gas Safety, Stephanie Trotter, has called for it to be a legal requirement for exhausts to be checked for leaks at the same time.

Lucy Barnard said, in the four months prior to her brother’s death, he had driven 10,000 miles.

“The grief I have carried with me since the morning of 17 August is something I never want anyone to have to endure,” she said.

“My brother was driving his car for weeks upon weeks unbeknown to him that his body was slowly being poisoned with a very deadly silent killer.”

Rebecca Barnard said, when she received the news her brother had died, she was eight months pregnant.

“It hit me very hard and I struggled,” she said.

“My brother didn’t get the opportunity to become a dad or have a family and that’s something he really wanted in life.”

“Even if this campaign saves one life we would be happy,” her sister added.