Boy Knocked Car Out of Gear Before Fatal Accident, Officials Say

A 3-year-old Rancho Santa Margarita boy who died after being run over by his parents’ car had disengaged the parked vehicle’s manual transmission, allowing it to roll backward, authorities said Monday.

The child had been standing on the passenger seat of his parent’s car and either fell or leaned on the gearshift, putting the car in neutral about 5 p.m. Sunday, Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Doan said.

As the car rolled, the boy--identified by the coroner’s office as Chase Hankins--jumped out, was hit by the open car door and fell into the path of the front wheels. The car rolled in an arc down the steep driveway until it hit another car.

Investigators say specific details on how the car got moving were unclear Monday and may never be known.

Transportation experts say similar fatal accidents occur periodically throughout the country. Experts say the child’s death is a grim reminder of basic precautions parents should take involving cars and youngsters:

* Lock the car doors.

* If you have a manual transmission, leave parked cars in gear with the brake engaged.

* Educate children about the dangers of cars.

“It’s natural for children to want to experiment with driving a car like their parents. So you have to be especially careful once they reach that age where they’re past crawling and are getting more curious,” said Tim Hurd, spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington.

The boy’s parents, Wayne and Coral Hankins, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Paramedics tried to revive Chase but he died about 30 minutes after the accident at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, according to coroner’s officials.

“We’re going to be investigating this for a while,” Doan said. “I imagine we will eventually interview the father. There are so many things that could have happened, but the only one who really knows is dead.”

In most cars with manual transmissions, the clutch pedal functions as a safety mechanism. In automatic transmissions, most car makers require that the brake and a button on the shift be depressed before the car can be put in gear.

Sheriff’s investigators said the boy was alone in the car.

“Obviously, the first question you ask is, ‘Where were the parents?’ and we don’t have an answer to that yet,” Doan said. “If we find there was some sort of child endangerment going on, [investigators] will submit the case to the [district attorney’s office].

“On the other hand, you have a 3-year-old who is just at that age where they get into everything, and sometimes . . . they just get away from you.”