An adult should know better than this.

to remind folks that this can happen.... man do i feel sorry for the father

I have never heard of it totally blocking an exhaust pipe. Makes sense though.

Although I'm from Wisconsin, I was not aware of this. It is something that I will remember and pass along.

need to keep the exhaust pipes completely open. It might seem stupid of the father. Under normal a situation - he probably would have remembered that. But people don't always carefully think things through in the middle of an unpredictable situation. What a terrible tragedy. So sad for the poor little boy who had a whole life waiting for him. No doubt the father will suffer greatly for the rest of his life for this mistake.

When you're tired from shoveling and freezing from the cold, you don't think so well. And that warm car must've been awfully inviting.
This is a sad reminder to listen to your body and think things through when you're out in the cold. And if you're shoveling snow, wear a $20 weightlifting belt. It'll save your back.

After a big storm, ALWAYS check all your venting pipes around the outside of your house for snow blockages. We had a few huge snowstorms here a couple winters ago, and snowdrifts were blocking the gas venting pipes that run from our water heater and furnace a couple times.

Most people know about the exhaust pipe issue and they remember it, but most people forget about their home's venting pipes.

Yesterday I spent 45 minutes digging out the car. When I sat in the car and turned it on for a few minutes I made sure to leave the door open. There was still too much snow surrounding the car and I knew that the exhaust pipe was still covered by it. I clearly remember when some years ago two policemen sitting in their patrol car were overcome by the fumes and died. They apparently hadn't realized when they had parked that they had gotten too close to a snow bank and it had covered their exhaust pipe.

My thoughts and prayers are with the family. I can't even imagine how the father is feeling right now.

Rest in peace.

a blocked exhaust pipe would back up gases into the passenger compartment.

I thought the engine would stall.

Learn something new every day. Very sad for those two, just heartbraking.

Are there any symptoms? I mean, do you start feeling a little faint first? Roughly how long in the car would he have had to been in it?

Looks like a couple people died from it so far in this snow storm.
http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/02/09/boston-boy-dies-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-after-shoveling-out-from-blizzard/jTgqG3MSPPRMy7CrIB7fbM/story.html

If you get rescued, you have one hell of a headache when you come to. It has to do with carbon monoxide displacing oxygen in red blood cells.

That's what I have heard, at any rate.

It's death by oxygen deprivation. You start to feel tired, but your cognitive abilities also decline rapidly, so you often won't even bother wondering why. Your brain goes into a fog and you lose the motivation to do anything. There have been instances where conscious people stuck in burning buildings have simply sat down to die when an escape was easily accessible. Once the lack of oxygen starts shutting down the brain, our instinctive drive for self preservation goes out the window.

I warned him and he said that someone was coming for him. My answer was yeah the grim reaper if you keep your car running.

a snowbank. Who thinks of getting out and checking the tailpipe? There were four to eight foot drifts all over Eastern Massachusetts, cars covered with deep snow and frigid temps.

There was another young man killed as he sat too long in his running car. Neighbors said he'd been in there a long time...

These both were tragic. Remember to always check on people and tailpipes.

Remember this.