Runaway truck kills boy, 6, on trampoline
DES MOINES, Iowa — In a water-filled ditch off Hickman Road, the twisted remnants of a trampoline lay, marking the spot Monday where a 6-year-old boy died after he was struck by a runaway truck barreling through his backyard.
The boy, identified late Monday as Irving Aguilar-Gonzalez of Des Moines, was playing on the trampoline shortly after noon when a white pickup truck with Arizona plates driven by Guadalupe Villa-Guzman punched through the backyard fence of a multifamily home in the 2600 block of Hickman Road, striking the boy on the first afternoon of summer break for Des Moines Public Schools, authorities said. Villa-Guzman, 44, also of Des Moines, will be charged with vehicular homicide, according to a police news release.
The truck carried Aguilar-Gonzalez and the trampoline until it came to a stop in the shallow ditch, several yards south of the backyard. Police called for a tow truck to try to move the pickup and get to Aguilar-Gonzalez, but it was too late.
"We're here on the first day of summer vacation. It's never, ever easy certainly when a child dies, no matter how they die or when they die," said Sgt. Jason Halifax, Des Moines police spokesman. "It's hard to put into words how heartbreaking that is."
A 4-year-old boy, Javier Falcon, was near the trampoline when the pickup struck it, but apparently wasn't injured, Halifax said. His mother, who is not the mother of Aguilar-Gonzalez, drove him to Mercy Medical Center to make sure he wasn't hurt.
Villa-Guzman, who was driving with a suspended license, was taken into custody to be interviewed, Halifax said.
Neither Villa-Guzman nor the family of the boy killed speak English well, Halifax said, but police translators were called to the scene soon after the crash.
Seconds before the fatal incident, Villa-Guzman had hit a Toyota Highlander SUV on Hickman Road just before 26th Street, then his vehicle jumped a curb and careered through the fence and two backyards, police said.
"He was going 50 when he came over that hill," said Dorothy Taylor of Fort Dodge, who said she saw the driver leave the road. "There were no brake lights. None. He popped out, came around me, went between two cars and hit that van."
The Highlander was driven by a woman who had three children inside, Taylor said. The SUV lost its bumper in the collision and came to a halt just before 26th Street.
None of the occupants in either vehicle was injured, police said.
It remains unclear what caused the accident between the pickup and the SUV, Halifax said.
Medical Examiner Dr. Gregory Schmunk took photos of Villa-Guzman's truck for the autopsy.
Tire tracks pressed into the grass showed the pickup took the curb, bent a utility box and rolled through a neighbor's yard before hitting the tall, wooden fence that encircled the backyard where the boys played. A red plastic ball lay several feet from a metal chair surrounded by debris, likely where the trampoline was.
The tracks led to a second hole punched through the southern part of the backyard fence, which separated the yard from the drainage ditch.
That's where authorities found the truck, with Villa-Guzman inside and Aguilar-Gonzalez pinned underneath.
According to police, Villa-Guzman was involved in a single-vehicle accident on Oct. 10, 2012, in which he struck a pole. The cause of the crash was a seizure, police say.
Alejandra Patino is a neighbor to Aguilar-Gonzalez and his mother. She said the woman lives alone with her son, with no other family in the state.
Patino said she believes the woman is from Vera Cruz, Mexico, and has been living at the apartment for a year.
Mariana Cruz-Hernandez stood near the wreckage Monday, watching police tape off the scene. She said she was walking nearby just before the crash and saw the trampoline was empty.
She got a call from her cousin about the crash minutes later. "Nobody was there," she said, with a faraway stare.
Contributing: Kathy Bolten and Danielle Ferguson, The Des Moines Register