Girl, 3, Climbs Over Balcony, Dies From Fall

A 3-year-old girl died after she climbed over the balcony of her family’s apartment and tumbled four stories, police said.

Adriana Rodriguez had been watching television in the living room Thursday afternoon while her mother was cleaning the bathroom. The girl wandered out to the balcony through an open sliding door, investigators said.

“As I was coming out to check on Adriana, and maybe change the cartoons for her, I saw two policemen and the manager walk in,” said Sonya Gomez, 24, the girl’s mother, wiping tears. “The officer asked where my little girl was. Before I could reach the living room, I said she was here.”

Gomez said she usually did not allow her daughter to play on the balcony because its fence is made of a stucco barricade that has two feet of wrought iron bars at the end. As a precaution, Gomez said, her boyfriend had attached a plastic safety gate to the iron bars to protect the child from falling or getting her limbs caught between the bars.

Although the girl was shorter than the 42-inch-tall fence, she somehow managed to climb over the safety gate before falling, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Bob Clark said.

“When you’re four stories up and there’s concrete below, you have to take extra safety precautions,” Clark said. “Small children have no sense of height and distance. You really have to guard kids from those balconies.”

Twenty-one people, both adults and children, died of accidental falls from heights in 1994, according to the Orange County coroner’s office.

The accident occurred about 2:20 p.m. in the Vista Royal apartments in the 1300 block of North Ross Street.

Adriana was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana where she died at 9 p.m.

“It never crossed my mind that this could happen,” Gomez said. “Most of the time she doesn’t go back there. When she did, she would ride her tricycle in circles where I can see her.”

Rene Zenteno, an apartment manager of the building next door, said he was painting Thursday afternoon when he heard a woman screaming, “a little girl had fallen.”

“It was terrible,” Zenteno said. “Many people here were upset by it.”

Friends and neighbors dropped by Gomez’s apartment, decorated with photos of Adriana, to express their condolences Friday. Some neighbors went door-to-door collecting donations for the child’s funeral.

“The only thing that makes this easier is that I know she wasn’t in pain when she died,” Gomez said. “The doctor said she didn’t suffer any pain. It’s a relief to know that.”

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Deadly Falls

During 1994, the most recent year for which data is available, falls killed 93 Orange County children and adults, most of them from relatively modest heights:

Same level*: 53

Heights**: 21

Unwitnessed: 11

Bike: 4

Stairs: 3

Skateboard: 1

* From a bed, for example

** Roof, second story, etc.

Source: Orange County Coroner; Researched by TINA NGUYEN/Los Angeles Times