Worries Mount About Window Guards After Children Fall In Harlem, The Bronx
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- With extreme heat hovering over the area Wednesday, plenty of windows were open around New York City to let in the breeze.
But after two young children fell from two different apartment windows in the past week, many parents are asking how safe the city-mandated window guards really are.
As CBS2's Ali Bauman reported, James Frierson, 5, fell five stories out of an apartment window in a building on Bristow Street in the Crotona Park East section of the Bronx Tuesday night.
Police said James was in the apartment with his family around 7:45 p.m. when his mother went to the kitchen to make a bottle for her other child. She ran back into the room when she heard screams.
The boy's family was at his side all night in intensive care, 1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck reported. He has since made progress in his recovery and was transferred in serious but stable condition to NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.
Wednesday morning, neighbors were thankful he's alive.
"Kids nowadays don't really think," neighbor Amanda Bernard told CBS2's Magdalena Doris. "They don't really know what they are doing, so you've got to keep an eye on them."
But another boy was not so fortunate this past weekend.
On Sunday, 3-year-old Latyr Sene died after falling from his 13th floor apartment in the Harlem River Houses public housing development in Harlem.
In buildings with at least three apartments, landlords are required to install window guards in units with children up to 10 years old.
In Harlem, Latyr's parents told police they had window guards installed, and there was also a guard in the window that James fell from in the Bronx. But James slipped through the cracks while his mother was in the other room.
Police said even though a window guard was installed, the boy was able to crawl through the space in between.
On Wednesday, guards on the Friersons' windows were being replaced with taller ones. In an apartment next door, Ronaldo Birkbeck worried how safe his window guards are.
Birkbeck has nine young grandchildren who visit often.
"They come inside here playing and we don't know what's going on, so we require them, and any time they come, we make sure that the window is down," he said.
The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene approves all window guards in the city. The department said there should be 4 1/2 inches between the top of the guard and the bottom of the open window.
"The only thing they should do is make them taller," Birkbeck said.
Police said so far, there are no charges against parents in either case.
