3 New Jersey boy's death ruled a 'horrible accident'

[Bluebear]

... The police believe that the three boys, ages 5, 6 and 11, climbed into the trunk while playing on Wednesday night, and that the lid then slammed shut behind them, trapping them inside, said Vincent P. Sarubbi, the prosecutor.

"There were no signs of trauma, no signs of assault," Mr. Sarubbi said. "This was a horrible accident."....

One of the boys - Mr. Sarubbi would not say who - liked to "play with the knobs and switches" in the car, which had been parked in a bed of weeds next to the house for several weeks because it had a brake problem.

The car also had a trunk problem. According to police, the trunk lid would not stay up after it was opened, and instead slammed shut.

The police believe that during the few minutes when the mother took her eyes off the children, the boys scampered into the trunk, and it locked behind them. Either the trunk was ajar or one of the boys pulled the release latch inside the car to open it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/26/nyregion/26camden.html

[Qanisqineq]

1. Weird

"scampered into the trunk" when her back was turned? That must have been one airtight trunk. Or an older model car or something. On my car, you can't get locked in the trunk because you can push the backseat forward enough to get out.

[soup]

2. Here's a bit more on it

The prosecutor said the hydraulic plunger that keeps the trunk from closing was not working, so the lid was able to swing closed and lock as soon as the boys stopped propping it up. The car apparently was made before Toyota began installing devices to open trunks from the inside. And Sarubbi said that a panel in the back seat that can offer access to the trunk was locked.

An expert on children and cars said it is hard to know how long the children may have survived locked in the trunk. "There's just so many variables - temperature, relative humidity, the color of the car, the direction of the sun," said Janette Fennell, founder and president of Kids and Cars, a nonprofit child safety organization based in Leawood, Kan. "But it's three people and they're all competing for the same oxygen."

Sarubbi said some periods of hard rain on Wednesday evening may have muffled any noises from the well-insulated trunk, which was parked far enough from the house to make it difficult to hear any voices coming from it.

Sarubbi also said there was a bag of concrete in the trunk, but it was not yet clear from the autopsies whether that would have been a factor.
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/4651951/detail.html

--

so sad.

[Qanisqineq]

3. thanks

It is sad but still strange. I guess I never thought of hiding in the trunk of the car when I was a kid. Seemed too scary.

Edit: used "to" instead of "too"

[Mass]

4. It is very strange

They looked for the kids for hours. How is it possible that they did not hear the kids yell.

In addition, early today on NBC, they said they already searched the trunk.