Eight-Month-Old Baby Tragically Killed After Being Run Over by Freight Truck in Baby Walker

BANGKOK – An eight-month-old baby was crushed to death by a freight truck in his baby walker after he slid from a shop onto a road in Phra Samut Chedi district of Samut Prakanon Thursday afternoon.

When police arrived at Thidarat Air Service shop on Soi Suksawat 84, they found Wilawan Pitpan, 30, crying and holding the body of her son in front of the shop. His head was crushed and the right knee had a cut. The lorry was parked about five metres away and its driver was waiting for police.

Driver Sanan Sopapong, 61, said he was driving from a land improvement site at a housing estate on the road and all of a sudden the baby’s walker rolled onto the road at a very close range. He tried to swerve but the walker went under the truck’s left rear wheels.

Mrs Wilawan said she and her husband rented the building for three years to run their air-conditioner service shop.

Just before the death, she put the baby in the walker and let him play near the entrance, guarded by a one-meter-high makeshift barrier.

As she was typing on her mobile phone in a chat with her sister, the child pushed the walker hard against the barrier, which then gave way, and the walker slid onto the road, Mrs Wilawan said in tears.

Baby Walkers Unsafe

Baby walkers have also led to many preventable injuries such as violent parental shoving, toppling over, skidding on wet linoleum, tripping up.

In Canada, the sale of baby walkers was banned on April 7, 2004. Canada was the first country in the world to ban the sale, importation and advertisement of baby walkers. This ban extends to modified and second hand baby walkers, including those sold at yard sales or flea markets.