A 3-year-old Girl was killed when a table-type structure attached to a wall collapsed and fell on top of her, at a Head Start school in Dearborn Heights.
Dearborn Heights police said that the kids were at recess when a table-type piece of equipment in the gymnasium collapsed and fell on the girl who was just 3 1/2 years old.
The girl was taken to Oakwood Beaumont Hospital, but she was pronounced dead. Dearborn Heights police said in a statement:
“Dearborn Heights Fire/Rescue transported the child to Oakwood Beaumont Hospital in Dearborn, where the child subsequently died from injuries sustained in the incident,”
The girl’s family are absolutely heartbroken and were completely devastated when they received the call to come to the Hospital.
Police said that nothing sinister is expected in the “freak accident.” It is, however, being investigated as a tragic accident related to equipment.
“They were engaged in some type of recess or activities within the gymnasium,” Dearborn Heights police Lt. Mark Meyers said. “A mechanism that’s equipped inside the gymnasium failed at some point. That’s what we’re investigating. A child was injured due to it, and those injuries turned out to be fatal.”
Police said that the tragic incident happened in a place full of small children and teachers watching.
“These women did everything possible to assure that that child was given the best care for our fire department to come, and they’re devastated by what happened, and right now they’re trying to come to grips with the events,” Meyers said.
The child care center is situated at the St. Albert the Great Catholic School in the south end of Dearborn Heights.
The state of Michigan Bureau of Community Health and Systems is in charge of the division of child care licensing in the area. The last inspection of the gymnasium was in 2015, however, there does not appear to be any violations related to the equipment in this incident.