4 Girls Recovering in Hospital After Being Hit by Car

Four hospitalized little girls were recovering rapidly Sunday, the day after they were injured in a freak accident when a car left with its motor running was put in motion by a toddler.

Hospital officials say they foresee no permanent damage to any of the five children, ages 6 to 10, run over by a 1984 Thunderbird in the driveway of a four-unit apartment building in North Hollywood.

Officials at Childrens Hospital and UCLA Medical Center upgraded the condition of the three most seriously injured from critical to fair on Sunday, and two girls were expected to be released today.

A fourth girl’s condition had been upgraded from serious to fair Saturday. A boy who suffered minor injuries after being struck by the car was released Sunday.

Meanwhile, Marcos Antonio Garcia, the father of the 2-year-old boy who shifted the car’s gear lever from park to drive, said he had asked his wife, Estela Lopez, to warm up the vehicle. After she did so and went back inside for her purse, Garcia said, young Osvaldo opened the driver’s door, got in and locked the doors before setting the car in motion.

The car moved toward the porch, hitting the couch where the children were sitting.

Lopez, eight months pregnant, ran out to the street screaming for help.

At the woman’s cries and the shrieks of the trapped and injured children, a number of neighbors rushed up. Worried that the children’s arms would be caught in the moving machinery, they lifted the car and propped it on a car jack and a wood plank.

One rescuer, Juan Torres, said they then pulled the children to safety and waited for paramedics to come.

Garcia said he wasn’t able to unlock the car until after the neighbors had arrived.

Police said they did not expect to charge Lopez.

Relatives of the five children--three siblings and two cousins--gathered at the two hospitals Sunday.

“She’s traumatized,” said Maria Pena, an aunt of 9-year-old Valeria Fernandez. “The first thing that came out of her was, ‘I thought I was going to die.’ She was telling me how awful it was to have the tire on her chest, not able to breathe.”

Pena said Valeria was bruised and swollen and thought she was going to lose her arm.

“She asked my sister, ‘Do I still have any arm? I can’t feel it.’ ” A spokesman for Childrens Hospital said Valeria had a broken right arm and a broken collarbone. The other victim there, Janet Rodriguez, 10, was still being checked to determine whether her right ankle was broken. The conditions of both were upgraded to fair Sunday.

At UCLA Medical Center, the condition of Leslie Vega, 5, who was treated for a “crush injury” to the chest, was raised from serious to fair Sunday morning. Guadalupe Rodriguez, 9, Janet’s younger sister, had multiple scrapes and a large cut on her left leg. She remained in fair condition at UCLA.

Smith is a Times staff writer, and Olivo is a Times correspondent.