‘SHE WAS A FIGHTER’
Family, community reeling at shock of losing Camila Torcato to tragic accident outside school
Girl who died after being pinned against a car had battled cancer, endured multiple surgeries before she even started school
Five-year-old Camila Torcato fought dearly for her life after she was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 2.
Her mother and father watched as she bravely underwent numerous surgeries on her kidneys and lungs. She finally completed her chemotherapy and was able to begin school in September.
Camila and her father were about to get in their car to go home Monday when an SUV with no driver rolled toward them, pinning the pair against their car at St. Raphael Catholic School, where she attended kindergarten.
Distraught father Amilcar Torcato said he couldn’t remember how long the two of them remained stuck between the two vehicles before they were freed.
At the hospital he was told that his daughter’s organs were failing and she was bleeding internally. She died at the hospital Monday evening.
“She was a very special girl, she had problems before, she had cancer, but she was a fighter,” her father said Tuesday afternoon outside his North York home. “She was a very sweet girl, shy, but very sweet; my mind is filled with her memories.
“I went to pick her up in school because the day before she asked me if I could,” he said, his voice quivering as he stood in the cold. “Usually her mom picks her up, but that day I did.”
Camila’s 2-year-old brother, Ethan, unaware of the tragedy, smiled from the door as family and friends trailed into the family’s home to provide comfort to the grieving parents.
“It would be a year now after finishing chemotherapy and this just happened yesterday,” Amilcar said.
“There are so many memories of playing with her, and going with her to places she liked to go to like the beach, playing in the snow, outside, she liked being outside all the time.”
Drivers need to be more cautious in order to avoid these tragedies, he said.
“I want people to just be careful with parking the cars around schools. Make sure you stop the motor, and to not go out without stopping the motor,” Amilcar said. “This could happen again, yesterday it was her, tomorrow, it can be another child.”
Grief counsellors were at the school Tuesday to help students and staff cope with the news of Camila’s death.
Around the back of the school near Keele St. and Wilson Ave., a pink and purple memorial grew.
A stuffed lion, a teddy bear clutching a heart and bundles of flowers, icy on the snow-covered grass, were among the flowers, stuffed animals and notes left by mourners.
Cars slowed in front of the growing memorial as parents came by to pick up their kids Tuesday afternoon. Some people crossed themselves, others wiped away tears.
Sandra Taglieri, a mother of two girls who attend the nearby St. Conrad Catholic School, said there were “no words” to describe what happened.
“I have — I’m going to choke up, it’s so horrible — my children; same age,” Taglieri said. “And as a community, you come together and you’re affected by it. It’s tragedy. No words. I don’t know how to explain it.”
Her daughters brought a picture, drawn on red construction paper, to the memorial.
“I made a picture,” her Grade 2 daughter explained. “It said, ‘remember her and think about her, because we want to remember that she was with us.’ ”
She explained that a friend helped her draw the picture, adding that they included some crosses.
“We put lots of hearts and said to pray, so that we watch out for our kids if it happens.”
Students and staff were planning on creating a memorial table for Camila at the school, the board said.
“Tragedies such as this can be difficult for anyone to accept or understand, particularly for young people,” the school board said in a statement. “A team of counsellors, including a social worker, psychologist and members of our chaplaincy and religion team will be on hand to support the school community today.”
The board said support workers will be on hand as long as is needed.
“Our advice to parents and anyone driving around schools is to be extra careful with the weather conditions that are bad whether that’s rain, sleet or snow,” said John Yan, spokesperson for the Toronto Catholic District School board.
The police traffic services division said the investigation is ongoing, and charges have not yet been determined.
Speaking to reporters at a news conference at police headquarters to launch a previously planned road safety campaign, Toronto police Superintendent Scott Baptist, who is in charge of traffic services and parking enforcement, called the girl’s death “a terribly, terribly tragic situation in every respect.”
“A beautiful 5-year-old girl is dead. We are investigating that to the very best of our ability,” he said, stating that the force’s accident reconstruction team and criminal investigators were working on the case.
He declined to say whether police had interviewed the person who left the car that struck the girl unattended.
“It’s a very, very fresh ongoing investigation. I really can’t get into that right now,” he said.
Brian Patterson, president of the Ontario Safety League, said school zones have become less safe over the past decade.
“We’ve got people rushing kids in and out of school, we’ve got up to 100 vehicles, in some cases, dropping kids within a 20-minute period,” he said.
“And unfortunately, as you get closer and closer to the start of the school day, the more and more dangerous the area is.”
Patterson said St. Raphael Catholic School is a proactive school that “has done a lot to do it right,” and called Monday’s fatality unique.
His advice to people dropping off children for the school day is to not allow children to exit the car into traffic and “if you’re in a school zone, consider it your responsibility to ensure that everyone is safe.”
Toronto District School Board spokesperson Ryan Bird said the board has been working closely with the City of Toronto over the last several months to help increase the visibility of school zones with the goal of calming traffic.
“A number of schools already have these new measures in place and more are on the way as part of the TDSB’s new school traffic management program,” he said in an email.
Family friends have set a GoFundMepage to help Camila’s family with financial stress. With files from Ben Spurr