Singapore—A police investigation into the death of a 13-year-old girl who fell from a multi-storey carpark at Pasir Ris revealed that she had been riding down a slope inside the building on a friend’s bike that had fixed gears.
The incident occurred earlier this year, on January 8. Her lifeless body was found at around 4:00 in the afternoon on the ground floor of the carpark at Blk 526A Pasir Ris Street 51. Paramedics later declared her dead at the scene.
On Thursday (Sept 3), at an inquiry into the teenager’s death, the state coroner was told that she was new to riding a bike, having only learned when she was in Primary 6, according to a report from straitstimes.com.
A domestic helper heard a loud noise, and then saw the girl motionless at the foot of the carpark building. The helper immediately called the police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force, according to Chinese-language newspaper Shin Min Daily News.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Gabriel Goh said at the inquiry that the teen, along with some classmates, went to the carpark after school on the day of the fatal accident.
After watching her friends ride their fixed-gear bikes on the sixth and seventh floors of the building, she made an attempt to copy them.
The type of bike she rode does not usually have handbrakes.
ASP Goh added that one of her friends, who had gone with her on foot as she rode the bike, said that she had a hard time controlling the bike when she began to ride it. But this friend was left behind by the girl as she went down the ramp from the seventh to the sixth storey of the building.
The friend told the girl to turn right at her descent, but she kept going straight and crashed into the metal railing on the side of the carpark, and was thrown off the bike.
According to ASP Goh, the impact caused her to be thrown out the carpark. And while she was able to hold on to the railing for a short while, she lost her grip and fell to her death.
The teen sustained fractures to her skull and ribs, among her other injuries.
The Assistant Superintendent of Police said that these injuries were consistent with those resulting from a fall from height.
The inquiry into the teenage girl’s death is set to continue later in the month.
At the time of her death, the straitstimes.com reported that the carpark where the accident took place had been frequented by children for playing with their bikes, many of whom were seen by residents of the area in their school uniforms on schooldays afternoons.
She was identified in the Straits Times report as Carlyn Wee, a student from Hai Sing Catholic School, and the only child in her family. —/TISG
13-year-old girl falls to death from multi-storey carpark after allegedly losing control of bicycle