Coroner hears details of infant’s death at Urban Revivo

A free-standing mirror that crushed an infant to death at an Urban Revivo store at Jewel Changi last August weighed more than 100kg, the Singapore coroner heard yesterday.

The accident occurred when two six-year-old boys, one a brother of the infant Lai Jiaxin from China, were playing behind it. When one of the boys stepped out from behind the mirror, it tipped over, crushing the one-year-old, causing head injuries from which she later passed away at Changi General Hospital.

The coroner’s inquest heard that Urban Revivo subsequently removed all free-standing mirrors from the store. All mirrors there now are screwed down and glued to prevent a recurrence of the tragedy.

Investigation officer Sarah Habibah told the inquest that police do not consider any foul play to be involved in the death, which she described as due to misadventure.

Jiaxin was one of eight members in a group of family and friends who traveled to Singapore for a four-day holiday. They were at the Urban Revivo stores for some last-minute shopping before a scheduled flight home that afternoon, August 23.

During the inquest, before State Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam, a video from in-store cameras was played. It showed the two boys running around in the store, under the eye of their grandmothers, while their parents were trying on clothes. The boys went behind the mirror and when they exited separately the mirror fell onto Jiaxin.

Store staff helped to free the child from beneath the mirror but she was bleeding from her nose and mouth.

The coroner will deliver her findings on the death on April 15.