Parents drove about 100 km with their dead son in the car, believing he was asleep
A 31-year-old man died of a heart attack after his parents drove about 100 km thinking he was asleep in the back seat on the A21 motorway to Turin.
A family of Romanian origin drove roughly 100 kilometres across northern Italy believing their adult son was asleep in the back seat — only to discover at a motorway rest area that he had died, the parents later told rescuers. “We thought he was sleeping,” they said, as the vehicle was heading toward Turin.
The incident occurred yesterday at about 7:30 a.m. on the A21 Turin–Piacenza motorway. The father was driving and the mother sat in the front passenger seat while their son occupied the rear of the car; for a long stretch they did not notice anything unusual.
After their son remained silent for an extended period, the couple pulled into a service area and checked on him. When they touched him they realised he was not breathing and immediately called emergency services. A doctor who arrived at the scene pronounced him dead.
Medical cause and family account
The deceased was a 31-year-old man. According to the parents, he suffered from minor heart problems; medical examiners reported a heart attack as the cause of death, saying he had no time to call for help and effectively passed from sleep into death without alerting his parents.
The parents told rescuers they last spoke with their son about 100 kilometres before they discovered he had stopped breathing. No names have been released by authorities.
Photo: Salvatore Laporta/KONTROLAB / Zuma Press / Profimedia
