Truck Kills Child, 3, in Crosswalk

A 3-year-old boy riding in a stroller being pushed by his grandmother was killed Wednesday when a truck hit them in a Boyle Heights crosswalk, authorities said.

The grandmother suffered serious injuries and was taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

Lt. Paul Vernon of the Los Angeles Police Department described the accident as an especially tragic sequence of chance events -- catastrophic for the victims, and deeply upsetting to the driver of the truck, who simply “had no idea” that the pair was inches from the grill of his 18-wheeler.

Police did not identify the driver. They said that he was a professional with a clean record and that he was not found in violation of any law. “He was just so high up that he couldn’t see them over the angle of his own truck,” Vernon said.

The incident was preceded by a minor crash earlier in the morning that damaged a traffic signal at Whittier Boulevard and Lorena Street, causing it to revert to blinking red.

Shortly after, about 8:45 a.m., Rosalinda Garcia, 53, ventured into the crosswalk eastbound at Lorena, pushing grandson Danilo Garcia.

The driver of a car in the near lane waited as she passed, then accelerated. The truck driver in the inside lane saw the car go, and went forward also, wrongly assuming the intersection was clear.

Danilo died of head injuries at the scene; Rosalinda Garcia was thrown under the wheels of the truck.