Bernadette Delmotte, 60, was cleaning her Fiat 500 in the French village of Bissy-sur-Fley when she was killed in a freak accident, with her family and friends left devastated
An autopsy has confirmed exactly how a woman died after she was fatally injured in a freak accident involving her car’s electric window.
Bernadette Delmotte, 60, was found dead in her red Fiat 500 in the small French village of Bissy-sur-Fley on June 13. Police were initially puzzled about the death but it later emerged that she was killed while attempting to stop her car rolling away after leaving the handbrake off.
Local reports indicate that Bernadette stuck her head through the window of the Fiat 500 to reach for the handbrake and inadvertently pressed the car’s automatic window control button. The window then rose up and fatally crushed her neck.
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An autopsy has since ruled she died of asphyxiation, with police chiefs ruling out foul play. Close friend Béatrice told France 3: “It seems the handbrake hadn’t been applied. The car then began to roll backwards.
“To stop it, Bernadette threw herself through the open window to stop it from going any further. But her hand moved over the window control, and by the time she straightened up, the window stopped on her neck.”
Bernadette’s family and friends were first made aware that something was wrong after she failed to turn up to a meal on the day of the tragedy. They initially feared she could have been attacked by a “madman” trying to steal her car.
But the truth of her horrific death was soon uncovered. Her brother François told Franceinfo: “At first, even the police were confused. They were really asking, ‘What the hell happened?’ I didn’t understand it either. When they called me to tell me, I was confused, in denial.
“Overwhelmed with emotion, I told myself all sorts of things – that someone had attacked her, that she had died by suicide – and then, little by little, I understood.”
François has reportedly written to Fiat to explain his sister’s death, according to Mail Online. The devastated brother told local media: “I am not in the process of claiming compensation, because that will not give me back my sister. I simply want to start thinking about it to avoid further tragedies.”
In 2021, a woman in Ukraine died in a similar freak accident after getting her neck stuck in the window of her standstill BMW car. The mother-of-two, who had been celebrating her 21st birthday, had been reaching out to her daughter through the half-open window of the front seat when the toddler pushed the automatic window button, crushing her throat.