15-Month-Old Injured When Father Backs Out of Driveway

A 15-month-old boy suffered major leg injuries Tuesday when his father accidentally backed over him with a car at the family’s Fillmore home, authorities said.

David Magana was airlifted to Simi Valley Hospital after being struck about 5:30 p.m. in a driveway in the 800 block of 2nd Street, Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Paul Higgason said.

David was being treated Tuesday night in the hospital’s emergency room for a fractured right femur, fractured ribs and a deep cut on his left thigh, the sergeant said. The incident has been ruled an accident, he added.

“Thank God it was only his lower half,” Higgason said. “This is a parent’s worst nightmare--or one of them.”

The boy’s father, Erasmo Magana, had left David and David’s two siblings, both under 4, unattended in the front yard as he backed his car out of the driveway, Higgason said.

As he pulled back, Magana felt the car roll over something, the sergeant added.

Fillmore Fire Chief Pat Askren said when emergency personnel arrived at the house they found the boy conscious and lying on a carpeted floor in the living room.

The boy was screaming, crying and in extreme pain, the chief said. Erasmo Magana had carried his son into the house to bandage the leg that had suffered a cut and was bleeding.

“The father was there and very concerned,” the chief said.

The incident was the second time this month a Ventura County toddler had been struck by a car driven by a family member.

On Aug. 10, 1-year-old Shachina Galloway died after a van being driven by her uncle backed over the girl at an apartment complex in Oxnard.