Bernadette Delmotte suffocated to death when she reportedly became trapped in her car’s automatic window, with her concerned friends discovering her body after she failed to turn up for dinner
A woman has died after a freak accident involving her car, leaving her family and friends both heartbroken and confused.
Bernadette Delmotte suffocated to death on 13 June when she reportedly became trapped in her car’s automatic window. Her body was found in her Fiat 500 in the village of Bissy-sur-Fley, France, after the window reportedly closed on her throat.
According to France 3 , Ms Delmotte, 60, was cleaning the car when the accident happened. It is believed she had forgotten to apply the handbrake so leaned in through a window to reach for it.
A friend named Béatrice said the car had begun to roll back and that Ms Delmotte “threw herself” through the open window to stop it. Unfortunately, she also accidentally pressed the automatic window control, leading the glass to rise up.
READ MORE: ‘Hero’ dad-of-two killed by falling tree during Storm Amy is picturedREAD MORE: Mum dies in seven-storey lift plunge as husband tries to save her
“It seems the handbrake hadn’t been applied,” Béatrice told the outlet. “The car then began to roll backward. 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.”
Friends who had been expecting Ms Delmotte for dinner grew concerned when she didn’t arrive. When their calls went unanswered, they went to her home and discovered the body of the victim, who was a retired coach and training consultant.
Bernadette’s brother François Delmotte also spoke to the outlet about his disbelief at his sister’s death. “I didn’t believe it. When they called me to tell me one morning, I was confused, in denial,” he said. “I didn’t understand what they were saying, because they were talking about a problem with the car. So I thought it was a car accident, and little by little, I realised what had happened.
READ MORE: ‘My son had an accident on a swing set – he seemed OK, but hours later he was dead’
“At first, even the police were confused. They were asking, ‘What the hell happened?’ I didn’t understand it either.”
Devastated François furthr told local media he has written to Fiat to explain his sister’s death, but said: “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.”
Bernadette died of asphyxiation, according to an autopsy. Her death was ruled as accidental with no foul play involved.
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.