Young mother dies in freak accident after 2-year-old daughter presses switch to close car window on her neck
A young mother died on her 21st birthday after her toddler daughter rolled up the car window on her neck while she was trying to get the girl out through the window.
The tragic incident unfolded after Yulia Sharko had just returned to her home in the village of Staroe Selo, Belarus, after celebrating her 21st birthday with her friends and family. She was trying to pull her two-year-old daughter Arianna out from the car through the half-open front seat window, according to the Daily Star.
At that exact moment, the toddler accidentally pressed the automatic switch for the window, resulting in the mother getting stuck and finding herself slowly being strangled to death.
Her husband, Arthur, found Sharko unconscious not long after and worked desperately to break the jammed window to release her. He eventually succeeded, though local media reported that her body was already lifeless at this point.
Speaking about the incident, Dmitry Ivanyuk, of the Belarus Investigative Committee, said, "The young woman was with her family at a friend’s house in the village of Staroe Selo. On 31 August around 4.30 pm, her husband found her unconscious, with her neck jammed by the window of the front left door of their family car."
The 21-year-old, an account manager from Žabinka, was rushed to Brest regional hospital in a "grave condition with signs of mechanical asphyxia and traumas." The mishap also saw her brain "suffer irreversibly due to clamped arteries."
Sharko never recovered consciousness and was officially declared dead eight days later, having suffered asphyxia leading to brain damage.
The investigative committee is currently examining the circumstances surrounding the 21-year-old's death in the vehicle, which is reportedly a BMW E34.
Sharko leaves behind not only her husband Arthur and Arianna but also another four-year-old daughter named Margarita.