Unrestrained 5-year-old child falls out of truck, run over in Tampa, troopers say

A 5-year-old child is dead after opening a rear passenger door of a moving truck — falling out and having their legs pinned beneath the wheels of the vehicle, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

As the driver of a 2007 Nissan Titan turned from East Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard onto North 56th Street around 3:29 p.m. Thursday, the unrestrained child opened the door and fell onto the road, troopers said.

The child’s father, sitting in the front passenger seat, told the driver what happened, and the driver stopped the truck, the Highway Patrol said in an updated news release Thursday night.

The truck’s wheels were on the child’s legs when the vehicle stopped, so the driver moved the truck so that the child’s father could pick up his child and get back into the vehicle, the agency said. As they drove toward the hospital, the driver and the child’s father — who are cousins — spotted a Tampa police officer at the intersection of North 50th Street and East 23rd Avenue and asked for help.

The child was taken to an area hospital, where they later died, according to the release.

Drivers were asked to avoid the area during the investigation. The road reopened around 6 p.m., troopers said.

The driver’s two young children also were in the truck at the time, but they were in car seats and were not injured, the Highway Patrol said.

Correction: The child who died was 5 years old. An earlier version of this story reported an erroneous age provided by the Highway Patrol.

This is a developing story. Stay with tampabay.com for updates.