A family is demanding answers after a 79-year-old grandmother died when she became trapped under her car in a hospital parking garage in April.
Theresa M Phillips, 79, was driving her husband, Walter, to a doctor’s appointment in a Pittsburgh hospital when the tragic accident occurred.
Upon entering the parking lot, Phillips turned into the wrong entrance, forcing her to exit her car to retrieve a ticket. Her family’s attorney said that the Phillips did not put the car into park, causing it to roll towards her, eventually trapping her underneath.
The family’s defense attorney, Matthew Scanlon, said her husband attempted “to lift the car off his wife” but had to watch her be “crushed to death.”
“Poor Mr. Phillips was trying, I can’t imagine having to watch [...] This was absolutely a preventable tragedy,” he said.
According to her daughter, Marie Lawton, emergency services took 30 minutes to arrive at the scene.
A University of Pittsburgh Medical Center spokesperson said the hospital was “deeply saddened by the tragic accident.”
“While emergency crews quickly responded, the victim did not survive. Our deepest sympathies are with the family,” the spokesperson added.
Philips is survived by her daughter, Marie Lawton; her grandchildren; numerous nieces and nephews; and her sister.
According to her obituary, Phillips was a U.S. Army Veteran who “enjoyed playing video games, her pets, card club, bingo, and shopping.”
“She was very, very active; no grass grew under her feet. She always had something to do. But in the past two months, I’ve wanted to call my mom 20 times a day about the dumbest things, like ‘mom did you hear,’ not being able to call her that’s the hardest,” Marie Lawton told local station WPXI.
Scanlon said the family intends to file a lawsuit to determine what took so long and why no one from the hospital, just a few steps away, stepped in to help Philips.
“The public deserves answers on this, this is a public safety issue, UPMC being the largest provider in the area, we all deserve answers to this,” Scanlon said.
“It’s not on the world, it’s the impact on me, on my husband, on my grandchildren, on my dad. That’s where she left the impact, and we take it out into the world,” Lawton added.
The family hopes to file the lawsuit in Allegheny County court within the next month.
The Independent contacted UPMC Shadyside, Philip’s relatives, and Scanlon for comment.
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