3-year-old girl gets caught in car's sun roof and suffocates to death

CHINA - A 3-year-old girl in China was playing with the sun roof of her father's car, when she got caught in the mechanism and suffocated.

Her mother, Fan Dao Ju, said: "I just hope that this doesn't happen to other families, because it is just too painful to bear."

According to her father, Zhang Bing, the tragedy happened last Saturday. He had been on his way back to his hometown with his daughter, Ling Ling, when they met up with an old friend from the same village.

Mr Zhang gave his friend a ride. As they chatted, Ling Ling stood up, and put her upper body out of the open sun roof. She was playing with the buttons that operated the sun roof's mechanism.

The adults in the car were busy chatting, and did not take notice of the little girl. Some time later, the family friend patted Ling Ling and asked her to come down. Her father, then looked up and saw that her neck was stuck in the partially closed sun roof.

He immediately opened the sun roof to release his daughter, before trying to revive her.

At that time, an ambulance passed by, and the friend hailed it down. A paramedic in the ambulance tried resuscitating Ling Ling for at least 5 minutes, but it was too late.

Mr Zhang told reporters: "She was such a bright little girl, and she was the love of our lives."

Although Mr Zhang admitted that the tragedy happened partly because of his own negligence, but he had demanded compensation from the car's manufacturer as well, as he believed that the car's sun roof did not provide enough safety features.

cynloh@sph.com.sg