Congressman reacts to Contact 5 Investigation on keyless cars

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - "That's a horrible story," said U.S. Congressman Tom Rooney after watching a Contact 5 investigation exposing why keyless ignition cars are being blamed for recent carbon monoxide deaths.

Among those who died were 29 year Chasity Glisson. She and her boyfriend, Tim Maddock, were poisoned by carbon monoxide last summer after Glisson accidentally left her keyless Lexus running in her Boca Raton townhome.

Maddock lived to tell the story.

"It's like a bad dream that you just don't want to wake up from," he said during his public interview since the incident 8 months ago.

Maddock blames his tragedy on keyless ignition systems. The technology allows drivers to start and stop their engine with the push of a button. But, the technology has also been linked to at least 3 deaths nationwide after drivers forgot to turn their cars off.

Congressman Rooney isn't convinced the visual and auditory warnings available in some car models are enough.

"It's obvious it's easy to miss, somebody just died from missing it," he said. "It should come with some fail-safe mechanism that says the car is idle for 30 seconds or more maybe it automatically shuts down."

It's a safety issue industry regulators are just starting to address. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking into whether or not keyless ignition cars need to be standardized.

"Whether you're a Republican or Democrat, our job as a government, as political leaders it to make sure that people are safe," said Congressman Rooney.

The Contact 5 Investigators have learned U.S. Congressman Ted Deutch, who represents parts of Palm Beach and Broward County, has been investigating the safety record of keyless car ignition systems.