Tot's Parents Distracted by Photos During Deadly Fall

The parents of a toddler who fell to his death from a luxury suite at a Los Angeles Lakers game were taking or looking at digital photos when "somehow the child went over the edge of the section," said a police spokesman. Lucas Anthony Tang, 2, plunged some 30 feet from the third-deck suite, striking his head as he hit empty plastic seats beneath just after the basketball game ended at the Staples Center. Witnesses said he was moving when he was rushed from the scene by paramedics, but was declared dead in a local hospital.

The glass barrier in front of the seats where the boy fell is about the height of an adult's waist, and meets city safety codes, officials told the Los Angeles Times. The accident, however, has raised safety concerns about high, steep stadiums where barriers can be as low as 26 inches. In 2009 a worker at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium tripped in the press box and fell to his death. The Lakers offered condolences to the dead boy's family yesterday. "For people who have kids or nieces and nephews and understand how special a child's life is, it's very sad news," said Lakers guard Derek Fisher.
(More Lucas Anthony Tang stories.)