mother mourns the loss of daughter

Canada
February 24, 2007 9:49am CST
Mother mourns loss of girl killed by power window Updated Fri. Feb. 23 2007 9:26 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff A Calgary mother is mourning the loss of her daughter, who died when her head became caught in the power window of a running SUV. The tragedy happened just a day before the girl's second birthday. "It was just a bunch of bad choices, bad decisions," a disconsolate Lisa Coad told CTV News. Investigators say her daughter, Sienna, died Tuesday morning after Coad left the girl and her six-year-old brother in a Chevrolet Blazer while she ran an errand. Coad had taken the day off work to prepare for the little girl's birthday. "It was the child's own actions that caused the window to go down and then back up so unfortunately it's just one of those tragic accidents that we just can't explain," said Calgary police Duty Insp. Luch Berti. While Coad was away from the SUV, the older child unbuckled Sienna because she was crying. But he fell asleep soon after. Officials believe the toddler activated the power window with her knee as she looked out the window, becoming stuck. A passerby walked up to the vehicle when he heard the girl calling for her mother and managed to free her. He placed her on the car seat and then ran into a building to call emergency services. Meanwhile, Coad returned to the car, assumed both her children were sleeping, buckled her daughter into the car seat and drove away. It wasn't until about 40 minutes later that she noticed her daughter was unresponsive. "When we were almost home I thought I would wake her up and see if she wanted to pick out a couple things for her birthday party," said Coad. She immediately called 911. A police cruiser driving past pulled over and two officers performed emergency CPR on the child. Emergency crews soon arrived and an ambulance transported the girl under police escort to hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Officials say the tragic death serves as an unfortunate reminder that children should never be left unattended in a vehicle. The issue has also raised questions on whether power windows should be made child-proof. "There are sensors for garage doors, because children have gotten trapped under garage doors and that's killed them. I think there should be censors placed in car windows," said Coad. But she is not trying to pass on responsibility for her daughter's death. "I never would have imagined, not in my wildest dreams, that something like that could happen. I just should not have left her in there," she said. Sienna's funeral will be held Saturday. With a report by CTV Calgary's Kevin Green
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1 response
@mmiller26 (1930)
• Canada
24 Feb 07
This is unfortunate, but I hope it teaches parents not to leave their young children alone in cars, even for a few minutes. I can't tell you how many times I've walked past cars and seen children sitting there alone while the parent runs inside the store for something. I feel an obligation to wait with the car until the parent returns, to keep an eye on the child and also to let the parent know just how dangerous it is--not just because things like this happen, but also because someone could easily walk off with their child.
• Canada
24 Feb 07
I mean I wouldn't tell a mourning parent "I told you so" because it was a freak accident, but holy heck common sense would've said don't leave your kids alone in a car! Heck I wouldn't even leave a dog alone in a vehicle let alone small children!
@mmiller26 (1930)
• Canada
24 Feb 07
I know! I've never understood people who can just walk away from their kids. Last year I was at a public park, and this woman walked up to the rest room and parked her baby in the stroller outside (and I mean outside the restroom area in the open air, not just outside her stall), then left her there to go inside and go potty! She was in there for about 5 minutes. Of course, I saw this and felt an obligation to stand there and watch over the child til the woman came back out, but boy, did she get an ear full when she came out to get her child. There are child predators and real sickos out there who could have easily walked away with the baby while she was inside the rest room. It was especially stupid since there was a middle restroom between the men's restroom and the women's restroom for handicapped people, and the stroller would have fit inside that room with her and she wouldn't have left her baby unprotected. How do you teach common sense to someone? I guess it's not so common, is it. Argh!
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