A young girl died after the power window of her car automatically rolled up and crushed her while she was playing inside the car parked at her family home in Phoenix, Arizona. The incident happened on Saturday evening. Police didn't release the name and age of the victim.
The girl was heard yelling after the power window started crushing her, following which she was rushed to a local hospital. She was later pronounced dead. Not much detail is available on how the window started rolling up. Police is investigating the case and is treating it as a freak accident but hasn't ruled out a homicide angle.
Tragic Death
According to police, the girl was playing inside a car in the parking lot of her family home, when the incident happened. The Arizona Republic reported that officer responded to the scene after receiving a call around 7:30 pm near 37th Avenue and Lewis on Saturday.
The girl was playing all alone while her family was having a party at home. Suddenly the power window started rolling up and the girl who was actually leaning out of the window got trapped. She shouted in pain but her family members could hear cry, with the window finally crushing her.
When officers reached they found the girl surrounded by her family members. The critically injured girl was immediately rushed to the hospital but despite all efforts by the attending doctors, he succumbed to her injuries in the night, Phoenix Police Department said.
Gone too Soon
The girl's family is devastated after her death and is still clueless how the power window got activated. Police have launched an investigation but haven't named the girl. They haven't also disclosed the make and model of the car.
"It's awful. It's heart-wrenching," Andy Williams, a spokesperson for the Phoenix Police Department, told Fox 10 News. "Little kids can get into anything and it just takes a moment for them to get into something that they shouldn't and it just takes that moment where tragedy can strike. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and the community right now."
While more children die in hot cars than in power-window accidents, the threat posed by the latter is also grave, car-safety advocates said. Children climbing windows can stand on and activate the toggle switches in some vehicle models, reported KNXV-TV.
"People don't understand the power that these window go up. It has between a 30 to 40 pounds of force and it takes 22 pounds of force to break the trachea," Janette Fennell, the president of Kids and Cars – a nationwide nonprofit that advocates for care safety – told the Arizona's Family.
