A relative of the young victim told us it was all just a terrible, terrible accident - a piece of furniture tipping over with deadly results. On Wednesday night, we spoke with a mother who's all too familiar with this type of tragedy.
It happened in this house in Northbrook where neighbors on this block filled with young children are stunned by the loss of such a young life.
"Very tragic. I'm at a loss for words. It's horrible to hear something like that," said Mike Kukula, neighbor.
It was shortly before 11 a.m. Wednesday when police were called to the home on Clover Road after a three-year-old girl had been injured by a fallen bookcase. Police say the girl was transported to Glenbrook Hospital. Paramedics attempted to revive the little girl, but her injuries were too severe.
"She is super sweet, very playful. So that's really bizarre and really sad," said Trina Nicolasin, neighbor's nanny.
Nicolasin says she saw paramedics also bring a man out of the house on a stretcher. The extent of his injuries are unknown. The tragedy is painfully familiar to Lisa Siefert of Barrington.
"I feel for the family. I know. I've been there. We've experienced it," said Siefert, Shane's Foundation.
It was three years ago this Friday when Siefert's two-year-old son Shane died when a dresser fell on top of him.
"It's the most awful thing. You can't heal from that," said Siefert.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates nearly 23,000 kids under the age of 10 are injured by toppled furniture every year, many by older TVs.
Siefert now advocates for the use of safety straps and brackets that anchor furniture to walls, urging big box stores to make the equipment more available and furniture manufacturers to include the straps with their products.
"I have to speak for Shane," said Siefert. "I do not want another family to suffer what we've been through and what we are going through every day."
Those safety straps cost less than $5 and take minutes to install, and advocates say it's not just furniture - but appliances as well, like a washer/dryer - that can also pose a danger to children.
Additional information:
http://www.shanesfoundation.org/
