Hairdresser Dies Outside Client's House After Accidentally Running Herself Over

A hairdresser in the U.K. was killed outside her client's house after she was dragged underneath the front wheel of her car.

The tragic incident occurred when the victim, Blanche Mullinger, 57, stepped outside the vehicle, leaving her Mazda CX-5 in reverse and the engine running. The woman was reaching to grab something from the front of the car when she accidentally hit the accelerator, causing the vehicle to reverse onto her, Manchester Evening News reported.

Mullinger was dragged underneath the wheels while she still had one foot stuck inside the car, leading to her death, as per an inquest into the incident heard Wednesday.

The woman suffered a cardiac arrest about a minute after being run over. The incident took place in Winchester, Hampshire, on Sept. 28, 2021, and Mullinger died the next day at a hospital, Yahoo News reported.

The client, Marzena Ozimek told the court that she heard Mullinger scream as she pulled up outside her house for an appointment. "I received a call from Blanche and she said she believed she was in front of my house," Ozimek said in court, according to Wales Online.

"I then heard a scream from Blanche. I started running towards her," Ozimek said, adding that she saw Mullinger partly underneath the wheels after rushing outside. "Her foot was still inside the car. It appeared her foot was stuck under the dashboard while the rest of her body was lying on the ground."

Ozimek said she banged on neighbors' doors for help and even flagged down a motorist who helped her pull Mullinger out. "The man pushed the open door to move the car. By doing this we managed to free [Blanche] from under the wheel. I was then advised to move her leg from within the car and then I turned the car off by the power button," she said. "Myself and the man dragged her out."

The client also recalled how Mullinger's face had lost color. "At that point her face looked grey, her lips were bluish. When you looked at her you knew she might be dead," she said.

According to the area coroner for Hampshire, Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp, Mullinger died of hypoxic ischemic brain injury which was caused by the heart attack she suffered after being run over.

Police Sergeant Jamie Barron told the court that the mishap took place because Mullinger was probably "distracted" by her phone and kept her car in reverse instead of parking it.

Mullinger reportedly wasn't married and had no one other than a son she had reconnected with right before her death.