School Reeling After Boy’s Death in Cart Accident

A team of 16 crisis counselors met Monday with hundreds of parents, children and teachers at a Sun Valley elementary school where a second-grader was killed Friday by an unattended utility cart.

An emotional Roscoe Elementary Principal Mary Kurzeka repeatedly told worried listeners she did not know why a 1,300-pound electric vehicle rolled down an incline and fatally crushed 7-year-old Steve Silva against a classroom wall.

Police said Steve was one of several children playing on or around the cart near the administration building after classes ended. The operator had left the cart just moments before and had taken the key with him, investigators said.

School officials said they had not yet determined how many children were in the play area or whether supervisors were present at the time of the accident. It occurred shortly before 3 p.m., when most of the teachers were in a weekly staff meeting, Kurzeka said.

Officer Dwight Gillett of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division said he is waiting for counselors to deal with the trauma of the accident before questioning witnesses and officials.

“The parents are still pretty much in shock,” Gillett said.

He said initial reports suggest that a parking brake was functioning properly but might have been released. “The sheer weight of the vehicle alone may have caused it to roll” backward down a 7% grade, Gillett said. Several children tried to stop the vehicle as it began to roll, investigators said.

Steve Silva, described by family members as a playful, energetic youngster, ran behind the cart as it picked up speed, police said. The Los Angeles Unified School District is conducting an investigation, said Supt. Roy Romer.

Sharon Swonger, who leads the district’s crisis team, said counselors have met several times with the youth’s parents, Enrique and Juana Silva, who have two other children in district schools. Funeral plans have not yet been announced.

Many parents dabbed at tears after meeting with counselors, seeking reassurance that their children are safe.

“My heart is with my kids,” said Nahla Almasri, who has two children at the school, including a 7-year-old daughter who was a classmate of the victim. Almasri said she and a neighbor help supervise children during lunchtime at the school, which has 1,200 students.

“There are not a lot of people there to watch all of the kids,” Almasri said.

“My head is spinning,” said Eugenia Hernandez, who had tears in her eyes after leaving a counseling session with several other parents in the school auditorium. “How could it happen?”

A spokesman for an Anaheim company that manufactured the cart said the fatal accident is the first he knew of involving one.

“It has multiple features for safety,” said Richard Christesen, a vice president of Taylor-Dunn, which has built the vehicles since 1949. He said the company will investigate the incident.

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Times librarian Ron Weaver contributed to this story.