Barrow carbon monoxide death: Sisters call for alarms in cars
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.
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In the months leading up to her disappearance, Banaz reported to police five times that her family wanted her dead, but no action was taken. She was deemed to have brought 'shame' on the family with her father and uncle hatching a plan to have her killed in the most savage way possible. They did so to restore their 'honour' and 'reputation' within the community. After Ms Mahmod's body was discovered, her father, uncle and other relatives and family associates were charged with her murder or for conspiring in it. In 2007, after a three-month trial at the Old Bailey, her father Mahmod Mahmod was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life with a minimum of 20 years in prison. Her uncle was also found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in jail with at least 23 years behind bars. Her cousin Mohamad Hama also admitted murder and was ordered to serve at least 17 years in prison. Three years later, her cousins Omar Hussain and Mohamad Saleh Ali, who helped carry out the killing, were extradited from Iraq. They were found guilty of murder and handed life sentences of 22 years and 21 years respectively.
