Iowa Girl Killed In Bizarre Hammock Accident

A 13-year-old Iowa girl died in a bizarre hammock accident last Saturday.

Peri Sagun, 13, was having a quiet weekend at her Des Moines home when she decided to relax outside in the sun. The Iowa girl asked her sister to help her tie the hammock to a pillar outside her house. This was something the siblings had often done together when the sun was out, but neither of them knew that their decision would turn fatal this time.

When Peri jumped on the hammock, the brick pillar the sisters had tied the hammock to collapsed on her head. Within seconds, the young Iowa girl was completely crushed under the pillar, according to New York Daily News.

13yo Peri Sagun lost her life after a brick pillar fell on a hammock she was on Saturday. Hear from her teacher at 6 pic.twitter.com/yJAWz5mPXL

— Kim St. Onge (@StOnge_Kim) May 17, 2016

First responders rushed the young girl to the nearby Mercy hospital, where Peri later succumbed to her injuries.

After news of Peri’s tragic demise began pouring in, students at the nearby St. Augustin’s Catholic School, where she had studied, were left in shock.

Speaking to WHOTV, school principal Dr. Nancy Dowdle said she had a tough time explaining to Peri’s classmates how she had died.

“For many of these students they haven’t even lost a grandparent so for them, they’ve experienced death for the first time. So at the prayer service it was hard on them.”

Pat Hogan, who was one of Peri’s teachers, said the students could not grasp that their classmate had died in a hammock accident.

“Every child had the same question. Why did this happen, how could God do this? Why now? We could give them no answers other than this is a plan, and we don’t know the plan, but we just have to pray that the family gets through it.”

A bright student, Peri Sagun would have graduated eighth grade next week. A winner of the presidential scholarship, there was nothing that the Iowa girl could not have accomplished if only she had not met such a tragic demise, according to her principal.

“Peri was wonderful, she was very talented in tennis, she played for our volleyball team, she was an honors student, she was a gymnast, she was a dancer, she was in all our musicals the last three years, and she always wanted to do the right thing.”

Another teacher told reporters that the manner of Peri’s death would stay long in her friends’ minds.

“You would gladly take their place, in a heartbeat. They’re wonderful kids, and so when something happens like this you just wish that you could just exchange places,” she said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXSW6SnejLg

Police records stated that the pillar that collapsed on top of Peri was only buried a few inches deep in the ground with no reinforcements, which, according to a mason who spoke to reporters, was the reason why the Iowa girl died.

Pillars are supposed to be buried at least a foot in the ground, and should have support in the form of a rebar anchor.

While the family and friends of the Iowa girl mourn the tragic loss of the bright young Peri, her untimely demise because of a hammock accident is a stark reminder to the rest of us of our responsibility to be informed about our homes and surroundings.

[Photo by Mark Fischer/Flickr | CC BY-SA 2.0]