Report: Car Headlights Suspect in Death of White House Adviser's Wife

Fox news ^ | Feb 9 2011 | Fox news

[crosslink]

Several sources familiar with the ongoing investigation tell WTOP fire and police investigators believe the radiator in Turton's 2008 BMW X5 was punctured when it rolled into a workbench. The halogen headlights, which emit a bluish light and illuminate the road better than conventional headlights, stayed on after the radiator was punctured.

[maggief]

PING!

[BykrBayb]

It could not possibly have happened the way they say. Unless a pit bull was driving.

[The Theophilus]

Put me in the category of someone who finds those new bluish halogen headlights to be a road hazard to oncoming traffic. Why the DOT approved them is beyond me.

Quit bitching about better headlights. They work. Keep amber tinted driving glasses in the car, it will moderate the oncoming light and improve your overall night vision.

[maggief]

???

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2263531

The autopsy into Jan. 10 death of Turton, a lobbyist for Progressive Energy and wife of a senior aide to President Barack Obama, is still pending, but investigators believe she was stricken and unconscious before the fire ignited.

[Stosh]

“..she missed the turn at Fort Marcy Park”

A cogent hypothesis, but I’m figuring that vapor fumes from the center fuel tank spontaneously exploded.

[from occupied ga]

You don't have to be all that old to have a stroke. Former employee of mine went to the hospital with a severe headache (son drove him), got an MRI which the doctor pronounced OK, was walking back to his car and collapsed. turns out he had a stroke. Never regained consciousness and died about a month later when they took him off life support.

He was 53.

[healy61]

Is the radiator pressurized so early while the engine is running? How long would the engine run before it pressurized? And what is going on with BARF (LOL) that they are able to investigate a death in someone’s garage?

[John W]

“Maybe she had a stroke and died in the car. How old was she?”

37

[meyer]

I wouldn't be surprised if alcohol was involved.

It had to be something flammable, because it sure as heck wasn't antifreeze!

[ltc8k6]

240F is the flashpoint of pure ethylene glycol.

The article completely distorts that fact to make it look easy to ignite the antifreeze...

[oust the louse]

I’d be surprised if BMW lets the Gov’t toss out a bullchit explanation like this....seriously, they would catch a black eye over this.

[TigersEye]

Those new headlights are a serious hazard and should be banned.

[meyer]

Side note, not aimed at anybody in general - please do not confuse “Progressive” energy with “Progress” energy. The former is an “internationally recognized” entity that specializes in “decarbonisation of the energy sector through carbon capture and storage and renewables”. The latter is an electric company, and a rather large one at that.

[TigersEye]

I’m afraid I can’t answer any of those questions. I doubt that there would be much pressure initially but it would only take a few minutes with the engine running for it to build up. Very strange that BATFEGS would investigate this.

[Professional Engineer]

They really ought to have the technical content checked before publishing this stuff.

Halogen headlights have been available for 30 years. Maybe HID headlights.

Antifreeze flammable at 240? My car’s cooling system operates at that temp every day. Funny I haven’t had a fire yet in 3 years.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

” antifreeze in a car is a 50/50 mixture with water”

BMW uses 40 year old Cuyahoga River water in their radiators!

[Lion Den Dan]

doesn’t wash with me that they are 240 degrees or hot enough to ignite antifreeze.

I don't think antifreeze will burn either, at least at 240 degrees, but I will find out later this AM when the sun cumes up. I will let lou all know. Dan

[DBrow]

"Antifreeze is flammable, although it catches fire at 240 degrees Fahrenheit" Ethylene Glycol is indeed flammable, the 240F is the flash point (that's the point at which it puts out enough vapor for an ingition source to start it, not the point where it bursts into flame, 400C) but in an automobile it is mixed 50-50 with water, to get the advantage of the eutectic at low temps and the raising of the boiling point when the car warms up. This means that you probably can't get a pool of 50-50 coolant to ignite. It is possible that if glycol-water were exposed to an ignition source as a fine mist, as from a tiny puncture, that the water would evaporate leaving a very tiny drop of glycol, which would be more sensitive to ignition than the pool used in a closed-cup flash point tester. In some race circuits, the use of glycol is banned due to mist flammability. ................... "Combustible liquids in a spray or mist have been found to ignite at temperatures less than their flashpoint.7 Research on the ignition of mists indicates that droplets of less than 10 μm behave in a similar manner to a vapor of the same concentration.7,8 Droplets larger than 40 μm may ignite at concentrations below the Lower Flammability Limit (LFL) for an equivalent concentration of vapor.7,8 The potential for ignition of a solution of propylene glycol or glycerin and water is limited by the need to evaporate water from the solution prior to ignition.6,7" www.nfpa.org/assets/files//PDF/Research/RFAntifreezeSprinklers.pdf ............................... It sounds like a stretch, and if she were not a consultant to a company that just got a huge grant (don't remember details) and her husband did not work in the White House, the whole affair would be a curiosity, instead of another conspiracy.

[Girlene]

....it has been a month and a suspected homicide and no autopsy has yet even been performed? Does it usually take so long for an autopsy? I thought they were immediate in cases like this.

From WTOP,

"Beverly Fields, chief of staff at the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner says Turton's autopsy is pending, awaiting other tests. The initial physical autopsy did not provide a cause and manner for her death. "

[DBrow]

“The xenon lamps produce an arc between the electrodes “ in a quartz tube in a sealed glass enclosure.