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Car deaths due to CO, says forensic report

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: The chemical examination of the blood and viscera of the three persons, who died in a Hyundai Santro car on G.N.Chetty Road on the midnight of October 28, points to death by carbon monoxide.

The examination was done at the toxicology wing of the Forensic Sciences Department, which is under the State police.

A highly placed forensic source told The Hindu on Friday that the deaths were due to the presence in the car of carbon monoxide, which killed the three passengers within minutes.

Carbon monoxide combines with the haemoglobin to form carboxy-haemoglobin, which cannot take oxygen from the blood to be distributed to the vital organs. As the deficiency of oxygen persisted for more than three minutes, the heart stopped leading to death, the forensic expert explained.

L.Balakrishnan (36), P. Balachandar (27) and G. Arumugam (19) were in a car stuck in a traffic jam caused by torrential rain. When they did not return home after several hours, Balakrishnan's nephew contacted the police. The three men were found dead in the car the next morning.

After a case of unnatural death was registered, the bodies were sent to the Government Royapettah Hospital for post-mortem. The blood and viscera were sent to the Forensic Sciences Department for a comprehensive analysis.

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