Boy Dies 8 Years After Suffering Injury at Disneyland

Updated 9:40 AM PDT, Tue, Jan 27, 2009

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A teenage boy who, at the age of 4, was seriously injured when trapped beneath the Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin ride at Disneyland died Monday at Children's Hospital of Orange County of undetermined causes, authorities said.

Brandon Zucker, 13, was found unresponsive Sunday at his Anaheim home. He was taken to St. Joseph Hospital in Orange and later transferred to CHOC, said Jim Amormino of the Orange County Sheriff/Coroner's Department.

An autopsy Monday morning failed to determine the cause of death, which is pending further tests, Amormino said.

On Sept. 22, 2000, the boy was on the Roger Rabbit attraction with his mother when he reached down to pick up something he dropped, fell out of the car and was pinned underneath for about 10 minutes until freed by paramedics.

The boy was in a medically induced coma and, at one point, lived in a long-term care facility in Orange. The Walt Disney Co. reached an undisclosed settlement with the family in February 2002.

Brandon's mother, Victoria Zucker, was one of four mothers who spoke before the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board in June 2002. The agency was weighing regulations to be included as part of an amusement park safety law, which, at the time, had been passed three years earlier.

Zucker displayed photographs of Brandon taken just before and just after the accident and told the board that her son could not speak or walk. She said she had not heard a word from him since the night of the accident.