NCJ Number
139780
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 37 Issue: 6 Dated: (November 1992) Pages: 1697-1701
Date Published
1992
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article documents the death of a 3-year-old child by asphyxia through his accidental suspension by the neck from his parents' half-opened car window.
Abstract
The boy was found by his parents hanging outside the car with his neck wedged between the driver-side window frame and the partially opened window. Fifteen minutes before the boy was found by his parents, his mother had observed him playing in the street area in front of their house, where the car was parked. The primary autopsy finding was the presence on either side of the neck of a transversal hematoma consistent in form and location with the zone of compression exerted by the window from which the child was suspended. The hematoma's infiltration of the underlying muscle tissue was a sign of a vital reaction. The reconstruction of the accident by experts determined that the child must have placed one foot on the molding on the side of the car and pulled himself up to the window with leverage gained from placing his hand or arm on the wing mirror and the edge of the window itself. He could then have put his head through the wider part of the window opening. He might have then slipped, causing his head to slide to the much narrower front part of the open window, thus becoming wedged between the window and window frame without support for his feet. The car models in which the driver's window has two modules (one fixed, triangular, and the other a movable rectangular glass) make it difficult for the same circumstances to occur. 3 figures and 9 references