Moorpark Child Fatally Struck in Driveway

A Moorpark mother accidentally killed her 18-month-old son Friday when the child ran behind the family vehicle and she backed over him.

Tamara Bell, 31, was loading the family’s 1991 Ford Explorer about 10:30 a.m. while her son, Nicholas, was playing in the front yard. She had planned on taking Nicholas and his 4-year-old sister on a trip to Santa Barbara, authorities said.

Her husband, Rick Bell, a county firefighter in Simi Valley, was at work.

Unable to load the vehicle properly in the garage, Tamara Bell decided to back it onto the driveway. While she backed out, paying close attention that the vehicle’s rear door cleared the garage, Nicholas scampered from the lawn about 25 feet away and behind a rear tire.

“She was paying close attention to the door, and she didn’t see that the child had got behind the vehicle,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Terry Hughes said.

Two of the firefighters who rushed to the Mallory Court residence are close friends of the family and were overcome with emotion, Fire Capt. Keith Mashburn said.

“They were very close with the family,” he said.

The two firefighters stayed with the distraught mother, while paramedics rushed Nicholas to Simi Valley Hospital. The boy’s father met the ambulance at the emergency room, but Nicholas was already dead.

Nearly a dozen family members and close friends crowded into the Bells’ new home in the Campus Park area to comfort the family. About an hour after the incident, a distraught Rick Bell arrived surrounded by firefighters, who helped him walk to the front door. The boy’s car seat was still in the garage.

The accident shocked dispatchers and Fire Department employees, Mashburn said.

“This kind of thing can get to you,” he said.

The department will provide counseling and emotional support for those traumatized by the incident, he said.

After spending an hour inspecting the scene, deputies took the family car to the East County Sheriff’s Station for a routine inspection.

“I don’t think there was a problem with the car,” Sgt. Keith Parks said. “It’s pretty new.”

Parks, who briefly interviewed the mother, said she was overwhelmed by the accident.

“She’s obviously very emotionally upset,” he said. “She has family and friends that are there for her, trying to give her support. But this will be tough. It’s very traumatic.”