A 23-year-old New Jersey mom and her 1-year-old son died of carbon monoxide poisoning while Saturday sitting in a running auto that had its tailpipe covered in snow, The Record reported, citing Passaic police. A 3-year-old girl in the auto was in critical condition.
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Neighbor Isabel Carmona stepped outside her home Friday around 8 p.m.to see a man frantically trying to dig out a vehicle from two feet of snow after his wife and two young children had lost consciousness while waiting inside their auto to stay warm. Police say the tragedy is a reminder to people to make sure their tailpipes are free and clear because it doesn’t take long for cars to fill up with carbon monoxide.
It happened while the children’s father was steps away shoveling out the vehicle, authorities said Sunday.
When the father looked up, still shoveling, he found his family unconscious.
The mother and child are the only deaths in New Jersey attributed to the storm. “Everybody cry”, she said. However, she says the little boy had “no life” left as he was not revived at all by their efforts. “Girls and paramedics worked so hard, so hard to save the kid”.
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Reports indicate that paramedics pronounced the mother and infant son dead on the scene but that the three-year-old girl was rushed to nearby St. Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson.
