A pregnant mother has described how she 'almost died' after her car struck a pothole and became filled with deadly carbon monoxide fumes. Lucy Barnard, 26, was driving home on Walney Island in Cumbria when her Ford Fiesta hit a pothole. Moments later, the carbon monoxide detector she had installed in her vehicle began to register rising levels of the toxic gas.
Family Tragedy and Close Call
Lucy had fitted the detector after her brother Michael died from carbon monoxide poisoning in 2023. When she arrived home with her partner Callum Legge, 25, and their two children, she tested the exhaust for leaks by opening and closing the car windows. The family was horrified to discover that monoxide levels in the car had reached 180 parts per million, a concentration that can be lethal.
Speaking about the incident, Lucy said: 'It could have taken all of our lives. We shot out of the car and haven't used it since. We plan to scrap it, to fix it will cost almost as much as we bought it for so there was no point. We also don't feel comfortable if we did get it fixed, getting inside or somehow having it just in case it was to leak again.'
Campaign for Change
Lucy, who is now six months pregnant, said it was devastating to have an experience similar to her brother's. She added that she felt lucky to have the detector and that she followed her own advice of not travelling in a car unless it had one fitted. 'If we didn't know it could have killed us,' she said. 'It's all a strange coincidence that it happened to my family. This just proves it can happen to anyone at any time in any car model.'
Lucy is now calling for greater awareness of carbon monoxide risks in vehicles. Cars are not legally required to carry carbon monoxide detectors, but Lucy is keen to change the law. She started a petition last year that needs 100,000 signatures to be considered by Parliament and potentially debated. She believes there could be more deaths if the issue is not addressed.
Health Risks of Carbon Monoxide
The NHS warns that carbon monoxide gas is colourless and odourless, making it difficult to detect. Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include headache, dizziness, feeling sick or being sick, feeling weak, tiredness and confusion, chest and muscle pain, shortness of breath, facial flushing (though redness may be harder to see on brown and black skin), and loss of vision.
