Boy Crushed by Oil Pump Machinery

A 5-year-old boy was crushed to death Wednesday when he climbed into a fenced oil pump station near his apartment and fell into the moving machinery.

Huntington Beach police said Dana Rogers was dead when paramedics arrived shortly before 5 p.m. at the Villa St. Croix apartment complex.

Police Sgt. Jeff Cope said the oil pump station, one of about half a dozen within the apartment complex, is fenced and locked. But Dana and his brother, Steven, climbed over the fence and onto the oil pump itself, Cope said.

Steven told officers that his brother lost his balance and fell into the moving machinery.

Sue Reeves, a resident of the apartment complex, said she learned of the accident when Dana’s mother, Claudia Krall, found her son and began screaming for help.

Reeves said the oil pumps, the horse-shaped variety found in many residential areas of Huntington Beach, are surrounded by chain-link fences about five feet high.

“Any kid could just climb right over there,” Reeves said. “There’s a good 40 kids that live in this complex, and kids will be kids, and I was just wondering how long it was going to be before something like this happened.”