Girl Hiding In Leaf Pile Dies After Father Parks Car On Top Of Her...

[truthpusher]

And you thought you couldn't possibly get any sadder, read on...

http://www.wftv.com/news/3890704/detail.html

Girl Hiding In Leaf Pile Dies After Father Parks Car On Top Of Her

POSTED: 3:24 pm EST November 4, 2004

METHUEN, Mass. -- A 10-year-old girl was killed when her father parked his truck in a pile of leaves in which she and a friend were hiding, the family said. The other girl was seriously injured.

Family members said 36-year-old construction worker James Gravel did not know he had run over the girls until he got out and heard daughter Natalie calling him.

"She said, 'Daddy, I can't breathe,"' said Gravel's sister, Jennifer Gravel.

Natalie died at a hospital of head and chest injuries. Eight-year-old Meredith Reid was in critical condition Thursday.

[NEOBuckeye]

1. Sad...

[Lefta Dissenter]

2. I have been

OH so aware of this, ever since I heard about a girl dying the same way when her grandfather ran over her. I NEVER drive over a pile of leaves anymore.

It's so incredibly sad, and I hope the family can somehow recover.

[smbolisnch]

16. Same here

I remember a woman driving over her child last year in this same way. I always go around obvious piles of leaves for this reason. So sad....

[Career Prole]

3. It's heart-breaking. Read the local report...

Natalie's mother, Carole LeBrasseur, said this morning that Gravel "feels like he murdered his own child."

"No, I wasn't I upset at him. I know it was an accident," said LeBrasseur, who has two other children with Gravel -- Chantelle, 11, and James, 7. "Jimmy was an excellent father."
Chantelle said of her father, "My dad doesn't want to go back to that house."

Just before the accident Gravel had just picked up Chantelle from an afterschool program and son James had gone along for the ride. Both children were in their father's 1997 GMC truck at the time of the accident.

After the accident, Natalie said to her older sister, "I love you and I am going to be OK for you."

Jennifer Gravel also said no one in the family blames him for the accident, but James Gravel is blaming himself.
"He's very distraught," she said. "It's not his fault. It's sad. He could have never known. The two girls were underneath, playing in the big pile of leaves. They were not visible."
http://www.eagletribune.com/index.htm

That poor, poor man. What a nightmare. :(

[truthpusher]

4. Too much..."I love you and I am going to be OK for you."...how sweet.

[Career Prole]

6. I had just tucked in my 10 year-old daughter 15 minutes ago.

I just went back and gave her a giant-sized hug. That story will haunt my dreams tonight.

[truthpusher]

7. I have a seven year old daughter...

...I will say a prayer for this guy tonight...

[Career Prole]

8. Ditto...Damn, I've been selfish.

I've no doubt the nightmares will hit him far worse than you or I.

[Don Claybrook]

18. I have a 4-year old girl

And she's about the best thing there is in this world, at least to me. And I'm sitting at work trying not to tear up as I think about this terrible thing.

I have more questions than answers in the area of religion, but I hope this little girl is in a better place. And I hope her dad and other family can one day find some measure of peace.

[NervousRex]

5. Tragic

I remember similar stories growing up in Wisconsin....kids building snow-forts on the roadside and being killed when the plow comes along.

[karlrschneider]

9. Horrible. I can't even imagine how that guy feels.

:cry:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

10. If James Gravel or his friends and family lurk here...

Please let him know that our hearts ache for his loss and pray for his recovery from this tragedy...

[GoblinToe]

11. My heart goes out to that family.

n/t

[Dookus]

12. awful...

my father taught me when I learned to drive NEVER to drive over a pile of leaves, for precisely that reason.

good advice...

[JI7]

13. really sad, feel bad for the entire family

[JSJ]

14. tragedies like this happen everyday...

...and there is truly nothing we can do about them.

[Danmel]

15. That is just so awful

Thatpoor man, what a tragedy. One of the pediatricans at my kids' doctors office backed his SUV over his kid in their driveway, killing him. The boy was 2 and the father didn't know he was outside- it was night. THe visibility on those things is so poor, he ran his kid over. He now is leading a crusade for mandatory cameras and back up warning horns. But I'd just say drive soemthing you can see out of instead.


I don't knwo how you go on after something like that- so sad.

[sweetheart]

17. Indeed how sad

I'm sure the father re-plays it in his mind, over and over the moment
he killed his daughter. When a loved on dies, there is already that
psychological self-blame that happens, with people who loved them.
To have done the deed personally is a lifetime hairshirt. I would
be distraught beyond measure, lying in that pile of leaves waiting
for a compassionate god to come drive over me.

People die when their time comes, and our egos get all misplaced
about cause and effect, when the truth is that people die every day
and it is not our power that takes life, only God. I pray that
man finds solace.

[dkhbrit]

19. So, it's gods will then?

Well he is more evil than any of us ever imagined.

[sweetheart]

21. people die when it is their time

God is ALL things, all of life, George bush, and an innocent child.
The human mind can't reconcile these things, and decides one is good
and the other evil, and tries to divide god in to parts, some of
which they like "better".. for what is "good" if there is not
some "evil" and all of it encompassed in the original Whole, before
the human mind got involved to sort things out.

You don't know the larger picture. The father could become sooo
deeply distraught by this, that he could become superman and run for
president that nobody ever ever has to see their child die. As they
say, god works in mysterious ways. Today, 100,000 human beings will
die. Tomorrow likewise, and a replacement lot is born. Life and
death being so natural, to make them evil and good is but a human
distortion.

[NJCher]

20. pets, too

I recall a few years ago I was raking leaves and was about to jump off my terrace, down to the next level, to rake more leaves on down. Before I jumped, though, I looked in the pile of leaves and saw a black tail and a pair of kitty ears peeking out.


Cher

[sweetheart]

22. Pets yes

My friend had her doggie drown in the swimming pool, and tortured
herself for ages, that she did not hear him splashing to climb out,
replaying forever the terrible moment for years, when her little boy
died.

He saved her life, with his death, as she left that city and moved
to a place where her life has turned out brighter, a move she
would not have made had the shock not hit her... and i was sooo
worried for her, that she was on a path to dying herself... and her
little doggie, like jesus, died for her.

[Red State Rebel]

23. How awful - similar thing happened to a friend

I don't know that there can be anything more traumatizing than a situation like this.