'Horrific' Dry Ice Accident Kills Elderly Wash. Woman

UNIVERSITY PLACE, WA - A 77-year-old Lakewood woman died early Friday - and her daughter-in-law was critically injured - in a "horrific" accident involving coolers full of dry ice.

According to the Tacoma News Tribune, the woman and her daughter-in-law were found in a car early Friday morning in University Place. The elderly woman had been visiting her 51-year-old son on Thursday when the daughter-in-law agreed to drive the woman back home to Lakewood.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Office believes the women were overcome by carbon dioxide emanating from the dry ice. The car was used by the elderly woman's son for ice cream deliveries. The car was also brand new, according to the News Tribune, and so it held the carbon dioxide gas well due to new sealing.

The man had four coolers of dry ice in the car, which he used to deliver Dippin' Dots ice cream, according to the News Tribune. Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Det. Ed Troyer told the News Tribune the death was a "horrific accident."

Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide and, at -109.3 degrees, is commonly used to transport frozen goods. Dry ice does not melt like water but turns back into CO2 gas as it degrades. In an enclosed space, CO2 gas can replace oxygen in your blood, causing flu-like symptoms and sometimes death, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

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