Sadly, it has been confirmed that two friends in the UK died in December of 2016 while sitting inside of a modified Ford Fiesta ST. A recent inquest heard that Tom Putt, the owner of the vehicle, and Nikki Willis were found dead inside of Putt’s car. It has also been revealed that the death was caused by a modification to the Fiesta’s hot hatch.

Putt had removed the catalytic converter and installed custom air vents in the bonnet. This modification created a small gap between the car’s exhaust and engine, allowing toxic fumes to flow out of the bonnet air vents and into vents underneath the windshield wipers.

While this event is very tragic, it’s also extremely rare. The gap in the system just happened to be in the area where the fumes could escape from. On top of that, the lack of a catalytic converter, which normally handles harmful emissions, prevented the fumes from being controlled and led to them filtering into the Fiesta’s vents.

According to reports, Putt’s car was heard running at about 4:30 am and police were called at 10:30 am, about 6 hours later. The death of Putt and Willis were both ruled accidental and the post-mortem results had confirmed that they had both died due to the inhalation of exhaust fumes and carbon monoxide.