Missouri –
“…Mary Cappel, the mother of John Cappel — known to those close to him as Johnboy — is now on a mission to raise awareness among long-distance truck drivers after losing her son to carbon monoxide poisoning…Johnboy had always been drawn to driving, whether it was remote-control cars or a semi-truck. When he told his mother he wanted to become a long-distance truck driver, Cappel said she never considered the danger lurking inside the cabin.
In January 2022, Johnboy and his dog Sadie stopped in Aurora, Colorado, after a long day on the road and went to sleep. Fire crews later responded to the semi truck on fire.
‘It was the junction where the refrigerator was plugged in. And that it had smoldered inside the wall. And then went up the side of the wall and across the roof of the, of the cab,’ Cappel said.
Mary learned months later that her son and his dog had not died in the fire — but before it started, as carbon monoxide filled the cabin.
‘He just went to sleep. His dog went to sleep. And they just never woke up. And the fire, by the time the flames were spotted, he and his dog were already gone…’
Mary said carbon monoxide dangers in semi-trucks are rarely part of the public conversation.
‘Every time I hear them talking on the news about, you know, people running their cars in a closed-up garage, people using generators, they never mention, you know, what can happen in just a semi if you go to sleep…’”