What we know about the death of a 7-year-old boy who was run over after falling out of SUV
Zondeair Robertson fell out an opened rear passenger door of a 2020 Ford Explorer at about 3:18 p.m. on the 1000 block of St. Clair Avenue very near the intersection with East 5th Avenue.
Columbus Division of Fire medics transported Robertson to Nationwide Children's Hospital, where he died at 3:57 p.m.
According to the crash report from the Columbus police Accident Investigation Unit, a 27-year-old man was driving the Explorer eastbound on East 5th Avenue with a 25-year-old woman in the front passenger seat when the driver turned right to go south on St. Clair Avenue. As the Explorer was going around the corner, a passenger door swung open, and Robertson fell from the vehicle into the street. Robertson was immediately run over by the Explorer, police reported.
Robertson's mother was the one sitting in the front passenger seat at the time of the accident.
The crash report states only that "one of the occupants" of the Explorer opened an "unknown" back door, causing Robertson to fall out. The report does not say who opened the door. Besides Robertson, the report states there were four other children in the rear of the SUV at the time of the accident: an infant, a 2-year-old, a 4-year-old and a 5-year-old.
The report states that it was "unknown" where Robertson or any of the children were sitting inside the SUV, but does state that Robertson was not secured by safety equipment, such as a seat belt and a booster seat. The report also contains no information about the use of child safety locks on the rear doors of the vehicle.
According to the Ohio Revised Code, any child who is under the age of 8 years old and is under 4-foot-9 inches is required to be secured by a seat belt in a booster seat that meets federal motor vehicle safety standards. The only exception applies to emergency vehicles and taxi cabs, the ORC states.
Robertson's height is not listed in the report, which only states "unknown" for the boxes regarding safety equipment use with the other children or where they were seated in the SUV. The average height of a 7-year-old is 4-foot-1, according to Critical Body, a health information website.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Southeast Side man who was driving the SUV has not been charged in connection with the accident. He was arrested on the day of the accident on an outstanding warrant from August 2023 for driving without a valid license.
He was also driving without a valid license on the day of the accident, according to the report.
The Columbus police Accident Investigation Unit continues to investigate the accident.
@ShahidMeighan
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Zondeair Robertson: Update on child who died after falling from SUV
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Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D) signed HB 10 into law in Kentucky in March. Similar to the ALEC model bill, it provides protections only for immediate family members of the owner but not immediate family members of tenants, with the only remedy being for a removed occupant to sue in civil court. Maryland Maryland legislators introduced SB 46, a draconian version of the ALEC model bill, in January. It was cosponsored by State Senator Justin Ready (R–05), one of ALEC's state chairs in Maryland. As introduced, the bill would have required a sheriff to remove anyone from any property based solely on an owner's affidavit that they were 'fraudulently in possession of the property,' with no protections for tenants, former tenants, or their family members. Thanks to pushback from housing groups, the bill was amended to mandate that courts hold a hearing within 10 days if a landlord alleges squatting. 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Montana Montana Governor Greg Gianforte (R) signed a bill (SB 101) in April that closely hews to ALEC's model legislation by making squatting a crime and allowing property owners to request that law enforcement officers remove any unauthorized person. Amy Hall, the supervising attorney for housing with Montana Legal Services, was perplexed by the legislation. 'I have not seen any clients who have contacted us because they're being removed as a squatter. Squatting is just not a huge issue in Montana,' Hall said. 'As far as I'm concerned, this whole bill was 100 percent unnecessary.' Jim Manley, PLF's vice president for legal affairs, testified in favor of the bill. North Carolina In July, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein (D) vetoed a squatting bill (HB 96) that is similar to the ALEC model bill but with expanded protections for due process — effectively a substantially expedited eviction process — despite initially supporting the legislation. Stein stated that the only reason he had vetoed it was because it contained a provision that blocked municipalities from regulating puppy mills, an unrelated addition made to the squatter bill once it reached the state Senate. Texas As in Maryland, ALEC legislators in Texas sought to use the squatting issue to weaken tenants' rights. State Senator Bryan Hughes (R–1), an ALEC member, authored a bill (SB 1333) that went beyond the ALEC model by allowing immediate removal of 'unauthorized occupants' (without any opportunity for a hearing) based on an owner's 'verified' petition, and by making squatting a felony if the owner's loss is $2,500 or more. Like the ALEC model, the law provides protections only for immediate family members of the property owner, not the tenant. ALEC's Texas Senate chair, State Senator Paul Bettencourt (R–7), authored a second bill (SB 38) framed as anti-squatter legislation that would have created a streamlined eviction process without a hearing or trial for tenants and squatters alike. 'What the Texas Apartment Association was trying to do was to piggyback on the attention on squatting to pass really radical anti-renter legislation in Texas,' Ben Martin, the research director of the pro-tenant group Texas Housers, told the Center for Media and Democracy. 'One person who gave testimony from a landlord perspective stated that, 'From our point of view, a holdover tenant is a squatter.' What they were seeking was a top-to-bottom rewrite of civil law in Texas to favor landlords at the expense of tenants.' Advocates won an amendment to Bettencourt's bill that limited the expedited removal process to squatting cases only. Both bills were enacted in May and signed by Governor Greg Abbott (R). State Senator Molly Cook (D–15), who opposed both bills, told CMD that, 'As an ER nurse, I've seen how housing insecurity leads to poor public health. There's been a confluence of awful policies that has led to the worst housing inequality we've ever seen. There is a way to make sure that everyone is taken care of. Just slapping 'squatter' on a bill that erodes protections for due process is not the right approach. [In Texas] it is a lot easier to get a criminal penalty passed than to get real policy passed that addresses homelessness.' West Virginia On the heels of criminalizing squatting through HB 4940 last year, the West Virginia legislature enacted HB 2434, a very similar version of ALEC's model bill, in April. Traci Strickland, executive director of Kanawha Valley Collective, which seeks to end homelessness, told CMD that 'it's a bill with no solution. I don't want people squatting in houses either. I want a housing solution for people. Tickets for squatting means you're just going to have people who are racking up tickets and criminal offenses, which then hurts their housing and employment opportunities once we get them on the pathway to housing.' Wyoming Wyoming's legislature passed a law (SF 6) in February that is very similar to ALEC's model bill. It provides for immediate removal of an 'unauthorized person' with no opportunity for a hearing and does not exclude immediate family members of tenants, only offering protections for immediate family members of owners. The bill was introduced by the House Judiciary Committee, which includes one of ALEC's state chairs, State Representative Daniel Singh (R–61). Colleen Scerpella and Arn Pearson contributed research to this article. More from Rolling Stone Trump Declares War on Unhoused D.C. Residents: 'No MR. 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