Second boy dies after family car plunges into Los Angeles harbor

A second child has died from injuries suffered after a car carrying his family plunged into the water at the Port of Los Angeles earlier this week, officials said Saturday.

Eight-year-old Abdelkrim El Mezayen died Friday afternoon at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, one day after the incident, which is being investigated as an accident, said Joseph Cronin, an investigator with the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

The boy’s 13-year-old brother, El Hassan El Mezayen, could not be revived after the accident and died Thursday.

A witness told KABC-TV that the boys and their parents left from a parking lot at Ports O’ Call Village in San Pedro, a shopping and restaurant center, in their car. The vehicle traveled some distance before it plunged into the water, landing upside down, at about 6:10 p.m. Thursday.

The boys were trapped in the vehicle about 30 feet underwater off Berth 73 after the crash, said Deputy Chief Daren Palacios of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The boys’ parents escaped the submerged vehicle, but the children were still inside. Witnesses say the parents screamed for help, yelling that their children were trapped.

Divers jumped into the harbor but had a hard time rescuing one of the boys because the water was murky, Palacios said. Eventually, they were able to pull both boys from the vehicle.

The children were not breathing and CPR was performed.

TV news footage from the scene showed the boys’ parents struggling with firefighters to get to their children.

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