Another Spanish Lookout family has lost a child in an accident. We have reported on a number of cases in Mennonite Communities where young children are accidentally run over by a relative in their own yard - oftentimes with heavy equipment. Stephen Hochstetler is now burdened by that heartbreak after he reversed over his 1 year old baby girl yesterday evening around 4:00. We traveled to Spanish lookout to find what happened and how this family's life was shattered in just a couple of minutes. Here is more on this sad story.
Courtney Weatherburne reporting
The Hochstetler's moved into this Iguana Creek Road trailer home just six months ago.
They came over from Stann Creek with their 3 kids and they have settled in pretty well.
But living here will never be the same without their 1 year old baby girl, Hannah.
She was crushed under her father's vehicle in the yard as he reversed.
Stephen Hochstetler, Father
"I had gone to Spanish Lookout to pick up some electrical supplies, other building supplies to deliver to my job site and some of the supplies needed to go this morning to another different job site so I just dropped them here at the house by the warehouse which is close to our house and I just dropped them off quickly and was going to leave again. I just offloaded them off the top of my 4Runner."
As Hochstelter was finishing up and getting ready to leave, his 2 year old son came out to greet him but he told his son to go back inside and he did. His other little girl, 5 year old Mary stayed in front of the house.
But Hannah wanted to see her dad before he left out again, she never got to him.
Stephen Hochstetler, Father
"It must be that my daughter had followed me a little bit behind me around the edge of the vehicle and I didn't see her but I hadn't seen her at all, I was under the impression that she was inside the house."
"If I would have been parked right by the house I would have expected her because she always wants …she can't wait until daddy comes home (CRYING)....I'm not sure what happened but I looked in my mirror and I didn't see anything so I backed up and at first I felt like I had driven over something but I didn't know so I stopped quickly and pulled her out from under the vehicle and she wasn't breathing she was unconscious so I tried to do CPR and I got her breathing again, she had a pulse but then she stopped breathing before the ambulance came."
It's a tragedy that Hochstetler never thought he and his family would ever face.
Stephen Hochstetler, Father
"I remember thinking sometimes when I hear things like this happening I said this couldn't happen to me because I always try to be careful."
"You know I think so many things that I could have done, I could have come over to the house and called my wife or I could have gone around or I could have called her and asked where is Hannah, just things that I could have-should have done but I don't know it is hard to process."
But Hochstetler and his family will have to process that bitter truth and try to move on from this devastation.
For now, the reality of little Hannah's death hasn't settled as yet. And her older brother Stephen Jr. sits at their favorite spot patiently waiting for his baby sister to come out to play.
Email
Print