BUCKEYE, Ariz. (AP) - Arizona authorities say they have determined that an 8-year-old girl's fall last week from a moving vehicle onto a freeway in a Phoenix suburb was an accident.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety said Thursday that interviews and an inspection by state detectives revealed that the child unbuckled her seatbelt on the evening of April 8 and was moving about in the passenger area of a van when she grabbed the sliding door handle, inadvertently causing it to open.
The girl subsequently fell onto Interstate 10 in Buckeye and was critically injured.
DPS spokesman Raul Garcia says no criminal charges or citations for the driver are forthcoming at this time.
The girl was flown to a Phoenix hospital after the accident and Garcia says she is still recovering.
