Woman pronounced dead after being crushed under Parking Gate

A woman was found dead in Commerce Township Monday morning after apparently being crushed by a motorized parking lot gate.

It happened at Three-M Tool and Machine, Inc. on Richardson Road. 

Members of the fire department had to partially take apart the gate to get the victim out of the vehicle, which was found with an open driver's door and the engine running. 

Police say the victim, a woman in her 60s, "had reached through chain link fence gate using keys to activate the gate and had become trapped between the motorized gate and electrical box. The gate normally opens automatically but it appears it did not, and that is when she reached through to open it with a key. She somehow became pinned between the moving gate and the fixed portion of the fence near the electrical box."

The Medical Examiner concluded the cause of death was asphyxia by compression. 

MIOSHA (Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs) is also investigating. 

Police did not give the woman's identity.