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Death of toddler crushed beneath 166.5kg mirror at Jewel Changi a tragic misadventure: State Coroner

SINGAPORE, 11 Apr, 2019: The Rain Vortex, a 40m-tall indoor waterfall located inside the Jewal Changi Airport in Singapore. Jewel Changi Airport is set to open on April 17, 2019.
Photo from Getty Images.

[UPDATE: The story has been updated with a statement given by the family’s engaged lawyer}

SINGAPORE — The death of an 18-month-old female toddler after a mirror fell onto her at a fashion retail store at Jewel Changi Airport was found to be a tragic misadventure by the state coroner.

In findings dated 15 April but made available on Tuesday (21 April), State Coroner (SC) Kamala Ponnampalam noted that a pathologist had determined Lai Jiaxin’s cause of death to be a head injury due to trauma from the mirror which fell onto her.

She noted that Jiaxin had been standing in front of a free-standing heavy glass mirror in the Urban Revivo shop on 23 August last year at about 12.30pm, when her six-year-old brother and a family friend of the same age squeezed behind it.

“Suddenly, the mirror fell forward onto Jiaxin, crushing her,” said the SC Kamala.

Jiaxin was extricated from beneath the 166.5-kilogram mirror and conveyed to Changi General Hospital in an unresponsive state. She was pronounced dead at 2.35pm.

Speaking on behalf of Jiaxin’s mother, lawyer Richard Siaw told Yahoo News Singapore, “Our client and her family members still have not come to terms with Jiaxin’s untimely death. Whilst they accept that it was an accident, they could not appreciate how an oversized and heavy mirror was not fastened to the ground.”

The lawyer added that the family had given instructions to commence legal proceedings against Urban Revivo. The family is also considering legal action against the mirror’s manufacturer in Malaysia and its design company in Guangzhou.

Waiting to board return flight to China

The toddler had entered the store with her mother, grandmother and brother. The family had been with another family, comprising of a mother, grandmother, another one-year-old girl and another six-year-old boy.

The two families had been waiting to board their return flight to China later that day at 3pm. The two mothers went into the fitting rooms, leaving the grandmothers to watch over the four children.

The grandmothers were browsing through clothes while keeping an eye on the children, who were playing and running around the store.

Closed-circuit television footage showed the two boys playing around a free-standing mirror, which was placed against a wall in between two clothes racks, while Jiaxin was standing in front of it.

Jiaxin's brother was seen squeezing in behind the mirror through the narrow gap between the mirror and the clothes rack next to it. He then emerged from the other side of the mirror. As the other boy followed him behind the mirror and exited from behind the mirror, it fell forward onto Jiaxin.

Her grandmother heard the mirror fall and immediately rushed forward to lift it off her. She was assisted by the family friend and the staff.

Jiaxin’s mother said that she had ran out of the fitting room after hearing her name called. She picked up Jiaxin, who was bleeding profusely, and hugged her tight. An ambulance was then called.

The mother has since stated that she accepts her daughter’s demise to be the result of an accident and does not blame anyone, said the SC in her findings.

In her account, Jiaxin's grandmother said during investigations that she had tried to carry and hold onto her granddaughter while the other children ran around the store, but the toddler refused to be held. The grandmother then kept an eye on her while browsing clothes.

She heard the other family’s grandmother cautioning the children not to play at the mirror. In the next instant, however, she heard a loud thud and saw the mirror lying on top of Jiaxin. She ran forward to lift the mirror, and called for Jiaxin's mother.

It was the family’s first visit to Singapore, according to the grandmother.

Urban Revivo: Mirror went through safety tests

The mirror, which was unique to Urban Revivo’s Jewel Changi outlet, was a free-standing mirror 1.99 metres high, 0.6 metres wide and tilted at an 85-degree angle. It was designed not to be bolted to the ground as the layout of the fashion store had to be changed regularly to keep pace with the changing seasons.

A chief legal officer of Urban Revivo had said that the mirror was designed based on the behaviour of the reasonable customer, and was thought to be quite difficult for an adult to push it unintentionally since the mirror was quite heavy.

The safety aspects of the mirror had been considered, hence it had been placed along one of the walls of the store and had very narrow gaps between the shelves on either side it.

The officer added that no adult could have squeezed through the gaps behind the mirror. There were no previous reports of incidents involving the mirror since the store opened on 18 July last year.

Tests conducted on the mirror showed that the mirror was stable when shaken from the sides but “a little shaky” when shaken from the top. The force used in the test was to mimic a person accidentally bumping into the mirror – which did not fall or topple over.

The mirror would only fall forward with excessive force or if shaken from the top, hence it was designed at a height of 1.99m, to make it unlikely for an average adult to push it over from the top.

Following the incident however, Urban Revivo removed all its free-standing mirrors and have since secured mirrors to the ground with screws or glue.

“The retail staff at the stores have also been trained to look for out for 'risky behaviour' among the customers in the store, in particular the young children, and to alert their parents and child-minders to the potential dangers,” said the SC.

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