‘His little heart stopped beating.’ Bike handlebar fatally impales 6-year-old boy

Six-year-old Denny Curran was riding a bike with his brother and friends while his parents were unpacking boxes in a new home in Pullman, Washington, last month, his dad told KNDU.

“They knew they were moving and wanted to spend time with their friends,” his dad, Keith Curran, told the station. “He was left in the hands of a caring, trusted person.”

But just as they finished setting up Denny’s new room in their family’s new house — the very room that Denny was going to sleep in that night — his parents learned that Denny had been involved in a bike crash, Curran posted to Facebook last month.

Curran told KNDU that he and his wife had just unpacked Denny’s last box when the call came..

“My wife had collapsed and handed me the phone,” Keith told the station.

It was then that they learned Denny didn’t just scrape his knees or hit his shins.

“For some reason and I don’t know yet, the bicycle handlebars turned ninety degrees and impacted the asphalt and impaled him in his abdomen,” Curran told KNDU.

The Pullman Police Department told KAPP that Denny was riding his bike down a hill, and he “lost control of his handlebars.” The handlebars then flipped around and impaled him, police told the station.

Paramedics life flighted the boy to Sacred Heart Medical Center at about 4 p.m. on July 15, KAPP reported.

About two hours later, Curran posted to Facebook that Denny was “fighting for his life” in the operating room.

“He tore his iliac artery and lacerated his abdomen,” Curran wrote on Facebook. “He stopped breathing and cpr was performed. They had to clamp off the artery.”

The next morning, though, the 6-year-old boy died just after receiving his baptism and confirmation, Curran posted. He died at about 6:30 a.m. on July 16.

“ ...within ten minutes his little heart stopped beating,” Curran told KNDU. “And I truly believe that Jesus himself came for Denny.”

The police department and the school district confirmed the boy’s death that same day.

“Denny lost his life this morning due to a bicycle accident yesterday evening,” Pullman Public Schools posted to Facebook. “We are all deeply saddened by this loss; Denny was a young and vibrant member of our district and Franklin family.”

The department said it was a solo bicycle accident and sent its “sincere and heartfelt condolences to the Curran family.”

Now, about a month later, Denny’s dad is warning other parents about the handlebar danger.

“Hold your child... a little tighter today... then go out and take a look at the bicycle that they ride, investigate the handlebars and the grips,” Curran told KNDU.

Curran told the station that the metal tubes had poked through the rubber grip of Denny’s handlebar, but he’s not sure if that happened from the crash or if the rubber was torn from previous wear-and-tear.

Police told the Moscow-Pullman Daily News that the grips and end-caps of the metal handlebars “appeared to be damaged, exposing a sharp edge that caused the fatal injury.”

A photo of the bike provided to KNDU shows the neon green metal of the handlebar is now exposed.

“I feel some measure of guilt because maybe I should have caught this,” Curran told KNDU. “ ... I am going to be a force of nature.... following in the wake of this to try and make sure that not another child is harmed.”

This story was originally published August 15, 2018 at 12:45 PM with the headline "‘His little heart stopped beating.’ Bike handlebar fatally impales 6-year-old boy."