Boy, 8, Dies After Park Bench Overturns and Pins Him

An 8-year-old boy was fatally injured Monday afternoon when a concrete park bench overturned on him during a YMCA outing, police said.

Anthony Ferris of Laguna Niguel died about 30 minutes later, apparently of head trauma, at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, Deputy Coroner Cullen Ellingburgh said.

The boy was in a group of children from Hidden Hills Elementary School under YMCA supervision for extended day care on the Martin Luther King holiday, said a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

Three or four 8-year-old boys from the campus, which is in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, were playing on the bench at Chapparosa Park on Golden Lantern in Laguna Niguel when it tipped backward, pinning Anthony underneath, said Lt. Mike Heacock of the Sheriff’s Department. The child was struck in the head and leg, Heacock.