HODGENVILLE, Ky. – A girl died while riding her bike on her birthday Tuesday in what authorities called a "freak accident."
Charlene "Charlie" Sipes, 9, was cycling along a rural road not far from her southern Kentucky home when police say she fell, causing one of the handbrakes to sever an artery in her neck, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Larue County Sheriff Russell McCoy told WDRB that Charlie's mother found the girl roughly 200 feet from their house. She picked Charlie up and carried her home, but the third grader did not recover.
McCoy said her death was caused by a "freak accident."
"This is isn't supposed to be real. It's supposed to be a dream. Im going to wake up and it's all a nightmare," Charlie's mother, Tiffany Fischer, wrote in a Facebook post. "My beautiful baby. My smart and loving and funny baby.
Fischer wrote that her daughter had a great sense of humor and loved to make other people laugh.
"I don't want to do this without you, baby," she wrote. "I don't know how to do this without you. You were the sun. You were my stars. My everything. I love you more, baby."
A family friend has created a GoFundMe to raise money to cover the funeral.
