Girl, 5, dies after Ottawa crash

A five-year-old girl rushed to hospital after a five-vehicle crash in Ottawa on Sunday afternoon has died, police confirmed Monday.

The girl was riding in the driver-side rear seat of a minivan at about 3:30 p.m. on Sunday when the vehicle was T-boned at the intersection of Cyrville and Innes Roads, according to Ottawa paramedics.

Paramedics said the girl suffered severe multi-system trauma, including a life-threatening head injury.

Police confirmed Monday morning that the girl was pronounced dead late Sunday night.

A woman at the scene who was a Canadian Forces military combat medic had treated the girl until firefighters arrived and helped to extricate her from the vehicle. Paramedics then rushed her to hospital but she did not have a pulse when they arrived at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

Paramedics also treated the driver of the vehicle — the child's mother — and an eight-year-old for non-life threatening injuries.

Paramedics said they also assessed several others from the other vehicles but none of these people required transportation to hospital.

Rescue attempt

Allanah Gilmore, a military combat medic, rushed to the van, where she found the five-year-old girl pinned under the folded side door. She helped clear the girl's airway until paramedics arrived.

"It's very tragic. I have the picture of the mother running back into her vehicle and screaming for her daughter," she said.

Gilmore said she has witnessed some horrific scenes in Afghanistan, but said this was especially painful.

"I've been training to be soldier for a very long time and this is the first incident involving a child since I became a mother," she said. "You would have to be numb not to feel."

Police are investigating the collision.