I really cannot understand how some of you cannot understand (excuse the repetition) why these poor parents left the toy exactly where it was, exactly how it had been left. It was a reminder of the ephemeral quality of life, beautifully represented by an ephemeral toy that had encased, just by chance, their little girl's face a week before she died.
Perhaps there is a way to fix the pins... but that would also have fundamentally changed the very beauty of that piece. The meaning of it. That pin toy was precious precisely because it was fragile, precisely because it was so easy to destroy with a simple flick of a hand. The simplicity of a child pressing her face to it, possibly giggling while looking at her face imprinted in the needles "look mum, it's my face!", "yes honey, isn't it fun!". And left carelessly on the sideboard.
And then the horror, the sudden, unexpected horror of a child's life cut too short in an unexpected way. I am sure that the first time this little girl's mum came home after her child's funeral and saw her face her heart crumbled. Honestly, is it so hard to understand why she would not move it? Why she just wanted to see it there, as it had been when her precious girl left it there? I am more than sure she knew about the risks. But that is also the point: moving it and keeping it locked would have also destroyed its magic, its uniqueness, its spontaneity.
How it was destroyed was another symbol, a symbol of something ephemeral which would have painfully reminded that mother of her child's life's fragility. The point here is not whether the OP was at fault. An accident, a mistake, IT DOES NOT MATTER. that precious memory is gone, and it is unbelievable some of you are suggesting replacing it with anything. let alone getting someone to try to "recreate" it into another pin toy. No pin toy will ever, ever come close to the original one, and any attempt will undoubtedly end up in the bin, or destroyed in a rage. Only the one and only original would, and it is irretrievably gone.
OP, whether it was your fault or not does NOt matter. Those parents' grief is the only important thing. A child may run in front of a car and get killed, and it would not be the driver's fault, but it would not matter, the driver should not expect that an apology and a figurine in the shape of the dead child would buy the parents' forgiveness. Forgiveness is something that may or may not come, with time, the parents' time. Iif and when they are ready. You have not killed their child, of course, but you have indeed destroyed something irreplaceable. Any contact from you, any present from you, will just keep reminding them of what happened. The only thing you can do that will prevent more harm is to leave them well alone. Do not write to them, do not send them any more apologies, or cards or flowers. Just leave them alone. If they ever feel the need to approach you to forgive you, it will have to be them who choose to.