OAKVILLE, Ont. — An 84-year-old woman who was run over by her own car in a freak accident at an Oakville church earlier this month has died in hospital.
Halton Regional Police say the elderly woman pulled into St. Luke’s Anglican Church — located at Valleyridge Drive and Dundas St. West — on the evening of May 8 and her car got stuck after she drove up on a median that separates the driveway from the parking lot.
“The driver and her two passengers exited the vehicle, surveyed the situation, and determined that a tow truck would be required to free the automobile from the median,” Det.-Const. Chris Heffernan, of the Collision Reconstruction Unit, said Wednesday.
However, tragedy struck as the driver and her rear-seat passenger reached into the vehicle to retrieve their belongings.
“The driver inadvertently caused the vehicle to be put in motion and accelerated the vehicle while it was in reverse,” Heffernan said, explaining the driver and passenger — a 92-year-old Oakville woman — were thrown from the vehicle through the open driver’s side doors.
Heffernan said the white Hyundai sedan continued in reverse across a boulevard and crashed into a concrete staircase at the rear of the church.
Churchgoers, who were attending an event that night, reportedly rushed outside to find the two seniors badly injured and called 911.
The 84-year-old victim, whose name has not been released at the request of her family, died in hospital on Monday, Heffernan said, adding the second elderly woman remains in hospital in “serious condition.”
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