Lawn care worker's death was accidental
AIMEE AMBROSE THE GOSHEN NEWS
Jul 24, 2018
GOSHEN, INDIANA —
An Elkhart woman apparently choked to death during a lawn maintenance job at the Roxbury Park mobile home community in Goshen Monday.
Syma DiCarlo, 46, died from traumatic asphyxia, and the death was an accident, the Elkhart County Coroner reported as preliminary findings following an autopsy Tuesday.
A co-worker found DiCarlo unconscious and not breathing under a riding lawn mower at 357 Marlin Court around 11:30 a.m. Monday, Goshen police said.
Information about what led to DiCarlo’s death was not provided Tuesday. The case remains under investigation.
Depending on the machine, the mower will cut off, from bouncing in seat, hitting bumbs, especially with dryer weather, the ground is harder and immediately, upon lifting off the seat, if the parking brake is disengaged, the mower is designed to "Shut Down" If she was by the pond, hit a rut, or rear tire got into a hole and she was NOT trained properly, this could very well happen easily, on an uneven embankment, especially, without the wheel weights, attached to the machine! Most people, remove or fold down the "Crash Bar" which is designed as a Roll Over Bar!
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GOSHEN, Ind. (WNDU)
A 46-year-old woman is dead after being found unconscious and not breathing underneath a lawnmower in Goshen.
It happened Monday in the 300 block of Marlin Court in Goshen.
Police say her name was Syma DiCarlo of Elkhart, and she owned a lawn mowing company. They say Monday morning, it was a workplace accident that lead to her death.
She was taking care of Roxbury Park's lawn in Goshen, when something happened that lead her to end up underneath of a riding lawnmower.
A co-worker, an Osceola man, came along and found her face-down with her legs hanging out about two feet from under the mower.
It may sound like she got cut up in the mower, but police say the blades of the mower weren't engaged. They say the reason for her death was traumatic asphyxia, which basically means she suffocated from something crushing or pinning her down.
Neighbors in the area spoke to the coworker who found her and they say he was just so shaken from what he saw.
"I says, 'Would you like me to pray for you?'" neighbor Jane Hoover said. "And he says 'Yeah.' So I held his hand and there was blood on his hand. Then the EMT came up and said, 'Is there anything we can do for you?' And he says, 'I tried to push the lawnmower off of her.' And he said, 'You couldn't have pushed that lawnmower off of her. And besides, she was already gone. She was already gone before you got there.'"
Police say the investigation is still open, but they are looking at this as a complete accident.
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Syma DiCarlo
January 10, 1972 - July 23, 2018
She was born Jan. 10, 1972, in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Surviving is her husband of more than 30 years, Ken Geljack Jr.; two children, Elizabeth Geljack and Kenny Geljack III; father, Ronnie DiCarlo; mother and stepfather, Sandra DiCarlo and Michael Varady; brother, David DiCarlo; sister, Sabrina DiCarlo; and niece, Kayla DiCarlo. Also surviving are sister-in-law, Kristine Wilder, and in-laws, Kenneth (Katherine) Geljack Sr.
Syma was a loving mother who enjoyed going to the beach, gardening and most of all spending time with her family.