Sen. Steve Bieda (D-Warren) says next Tuesday he will introduce legislation requiring smoke detectors in all hotels.
The legislation he has been working on was inspired by the heartbreaking story of a father. Rick Lueders lost his son in 2006.
Thomas Lueders, a 26-year-old from Grosse Pointe Park, was on vacation in Florida when there was a carbon monoxide link in his hotel room. He had no way of knowing. There were no carbon monoxide detectors in his hotel room. His dad Richard was in the room with him, but incapacitated.
“He was paralyzed during that whole time period. He has recovered and made it his mission,” said Sen Bieda.
Bieda has introduced such legislation before. In 2008 an edited form of his bill passed. It required all newly built hotels to have carbon monoxide detectors in hotel rooms. Bieda says even existing hotels should have carbon monoxide detectors in rooms near equipment that could malfunction and leak the deadly gas.
We have seen incident lately that indicate a need.
At Novi Oaks Hotel in Novi last month a pool heater leaked carbon monoxide. There was no carbon monoxide detector to provide warning per Novi First Responders. Fortunately people realized they were becoming sick in time to call for an evacuation. It came only weeks after a similar carbon monoxide leak at a hotel in Niles, in Western Michigan, killed a teenage boy and left fourteen others hospitalized.
The criticism Bieda has heard in the past is the cost is too high for hotels.
“It is a cost-benefit analysis. What is the value of a human life?” asked Bieda.
