A young Arizona girl was killed Saturday by a car’s power window when, according to the Phoenix Police Department, it “rolled up on her,” People reports.
Officers responded to reports of a collision around 7:30 p.m. local time, when they discovered that the child was injured from the window.
“When officers arrived they learned this was not actually a traffic collision, but a juvenile girl had been injured while playing inside a parked vehicle at a residence,” police said.
The girl was pronounced dead after being transported to a local hospital in critical condition. Her identity and age have not been released by authorities. Phoenix Police Department spokesman Andy Williams told Fox station KSAZ that the incident is “heart-wrenching.”
“There are no obvious signs of foul play at this time,” police said. “The medical examiner will determine the cause and manner of death.”
A car’s power window can have between 30 to 40 pounds of force, as Janette Fennell, president of Kids and Cars—which uses “education and public awareness campaigns” to spread the word of such incidents— told azfamily.com. It only takes 22 pounds of force to break one’s trachea.
Fennell urged parents to monitor their children in cars.
“The temperatures can rise and kids can die really quickly from the heat but maybe what they aren’t thinking about is the dangers of power windows, maybe they aren’t thinking about kids knocking cars into gear or trunk entrapment,” she said.
