Toddler killed in San Jose parking lot

A toddler was killed Tuesday afternoon after a minivan hit him in the parking area of a San Jose apartment complex. (mercurynews.com) San Jose police said officers were called at 4:23 p.m. on April 21 to the 2100 block of Canoas Garden Avenue, near Almaden Expressway and Curtner Avenue. The child was taken to a hospital and later died. (mercurynews.com) Police said the boy was 1 year old, and other local reports identified him more specifically as 18 months old and named him as Olivier Carmelo Sgarlata. Neighbors told ABC7 the vehicle was a minivan operating as a privately owned airport taxi. (abc7news.com) Investigators said the driver stayed at the scene and cooperated, and they do not believe drugs or alcohol played a role. That leaves detectives focused on how the collision happened inside a residential parking area rather than on a public street. (mercurynews.com; cbsnews.com) The case was San Jose’s 16th traffic death and seventh pedestrian death of 2026, according to police figures reported by NBC Bay Area. Those counts put a parking-lot collision involving a toddler into the city’s broader run of fatal roadway cases this year. (nbcbayarea.com) Parking lots and apartment driveways sit in a gray area of everyday traffic safety: they carry moving vehicles, but they are built around homes, parked cars, blind corners and people walking at very short distances. In this case, police said the child was in the parking area when the van struck him. (cbsnews.com) Detectives are asking anyone who saw the collision to contact Detective White at 408-277-4654 or 4638@sanjoseca.gov. The investigation remained open Wednesday as police worked to reconstruct the final minutes before the crash. (nbcbayarea.com)