Bernadette Delmotte, 60, was found dead in her red Fiat 500 in the small French village of Bissy-sur-Fley earlier this year – and an autopsy has now revealed the tragic circumstances of her death
A woman was killed in a freak accident while cleaning her car after her neck was crushed by the window. Bernadette Delmotte, 60, was found dead in her red Fiat 500 in the tiny French village of Bissy-sur-Fley earlier this year. Officers were initially baffled by the death but it subsequently emerged that she was killed whilst trying to prevent her car from rolling away after failing to engage the handbrake.
Local reports suggest that Bernadette thrust her head through the window of the Fiat 500 to grab for the handbrake and accidentally activated the car’s automatic window control button. The window then ascended and fatally compressed her neck.
A post-mortem examination has since determined she died of asphyxiation, with police chiefs eliminating foul play. Close friend Béatrice told France 3: “It seems the handbrake hadn’t been applied. The car then began to roll backwards.
“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.”
Bernadette’s family and friends were first alerted that something was amiss after she failed to appear for a meal on the day of the tragedy. They initially worried she might have been attacked by a “madman” attempting to steal her car.
But the horrific reality of her death was quickly revealed. Her brother François revealed to Franceinfo: “At first, even the police were confused. They were really asking, ‘What the hell happened?’ I didn’t understand it either. When they called me to tell me, I was confused, in denial.
“Overwhelmed with emotion, I told myself all sorts of things – that someone had attacked her, that she had died by suicide – and then, little by little, I understood.”
François has allegedly contacted Fiat to detail his sister’s death, according to Mail Online. The grief-stricken brother informed local media: “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.”
In 2021, a woman in Ukraine perished in a comparable freak incident after becoming trapped by her neck in the window of her stationary BMW vehicle. The mother-of-two, who had been marking her 21st birthday, had been leaning out to reach her daughter through the partially-opened front seat window when the toddler activated the automatic window control, fatally compressing her throat.