Boy's fall draws attention to kids' safety

By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer

The city is researching ways to prevent toddlers from falling out of high-rise windows after a Wahiawa boy broke his leg after falling from a fourth-floor apartment Saturday.

The boy's grandmother, Luminada Natividad, who witnessed his fall, declined to talk about the incident when reached at her apartment at 329 California Avenue yesterday.

"We are at the very, very beginning stages of looking at what other cities and states are doing to prevent child injuries," said Krista Hopkins Cole, injury prevention coordinator for the Honolulu Emergency Medical Services Division. "Public education will be a key component of any program."

The effort involves Honolulu EMS, the Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition and the Department of Emergency Medical Services at Kapi'olani Community College. It will research effective home safety and child injury prevention interventions from other states and cities that could be tailored to meet the specific needs of Hawai'i, she said.

Scott Henry Toilolo's relatives say it is a miracle that the boy, who landed on concrete, survived.

Eight children 4 or younger died after falling from buildings between 1991 and 2004, state Health Department statistics show. Five of the deaths occurred in 1997 or later. There were two fall-related deaths in 1997, one in 1999 and 2 in 2004.

Killed last year were:

• 2-year-old Exodus Berger, who died Aug. 8 in a fall from the 14th floor of a University Avenue apartment building.

• 3-year-old Eddie Reiser III, who died Nov. 20 after he fell eight floors from his apartment balcony in Mo'ili'ili onto the second level of an open-air parking garage.

Of the eight child deaths in Hawai'i attributed to falls over the past 14 years, seven took place in the metropolitan Honolulu area and one in 'Aiea, according to the department's files.

The data also show that all but one of the victims were 2 or older and that six were boys.

Four of the deaths resulted from falls from lanais and two of the deaths were attributed to falls from windows. Information on the other two cases was not available.

"We're very fortunate that our numbers are not even higher," said Eric Tash, manager of the Health Department's Injury Prevention and Control Program. "The potential is there given the number of lanais on high-rise buildings here."

Far more children under the age of 4 die each year in Hawai'i as a result of motor vehicle accidents, drowning or suffocation than from falls from buildings, according to statistics kept by the state Department of Health.

"But, it is very true that even one death of a child resulting from a fall from a building is one too many," Tash said.

As far as could be determined, all eight of the victims under 4 years old who died between 1991 and 2004 fell from at least six stories.

On Feb. 20 this year, 2-year-old Ashli Alcala-Romero fell from the fourth floor of a Nu'uanu apartment building to the asphalt parking lot below after part of an aluminum railing gave way. The child suffered serious internal injuries but was released from Queen's five days later.

Department of Health statistics show that during the 10-year period from 1991 to 2000, 19 percent of the deaths involving children 4 or younger were attributed to drowning, 24 percent to suffocation and 23 percent to motor vehicle crashes in which the children killed were either occupants of a vehicle involved in a crash or were pedestrians.

About 23 percent of children 4 and younger who died during the 10-year-period were homicide victims, according to the statistics.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8110.