Vehicle Safety News

The boy wedged himself in the window and door frame while unattended. The death is being considered an accident and no charges are expected to be filed. A 3-year-old Los Angeles boy died after he wedged himself in a power window and car door frame when his father briefly left him alone, authorities said today. The boy, Arturo Campos, was apparently left unattended in a vehicle while his father made a telephone call late Thursday, said Capt. Ed Winter of the Los Angeles County Coroner's office.

The father parked the car on the 2900 block of Broadway near 92nd Street at about 8 p.m., turning off the engine but leaving the key in the ignition with the radio and power on, said Officer April Harding of the Los Angeles Police Department. The father then got out of the car to make a call on a nearby pay phone, making sure he could still see the boy, she said. The father, whose name was not released, saw his son playing in the back seat and briefly turned his back to him while on the phone, Harding said. As the father's back was turned, the boy apparently moved to the passenger seat and hit the button that activated the power window, suffering a severe neck compression injury, Winter said.

The death is considered accidental, and no charges are likely to be filed, Harding said. At least 86 children have been killed in power window accidents in the last 25 years, according to Harrison's Hope, a St. Louis-based organization that works to prevent injuries and deaths to children left unattended in and around vehicles.