BOSTON (AP) – City officials urged parents Sunday to keep their children from falling out of windows by keeping an eye on them and installing window guards.

“I want to remind parents that in just a matter of seconds, children can fall from a window that is open as little as four inches,” Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said. “It is important for all parents to constantly supervise small children. Such accidents are tragic, but can be prevented.”

One child died and three others have been injured in falls from windows in Boston in the past week, officials said.

Boston’s annual “Kids Can’t Fly” public awareness campaign tries to educate parents and caregivers about the hazards of window falls, the leading cause of non-fatal injury to children under age 5, officials said.

The program was started in 1993 after 21 children fell from windows during the warm weather months of 1992. There were only three falls in 2003.

Officials advised parents to be sure children are always supervised; install child safety window guards; lock all unopened doors and windows; keep furniture and other objects that children can climb on away from windows; and to open windows from the top instead of from the bottom.

Window guards are aluminum or steel bars that are installed in the bottom half of a window. Officials said simple window screens aren’t enough to prevent a child from falling.

A 2-year-old toddler suffered a serious head injury Saturday when he fell out a third-story window in Roxbury.

The tot, being babysat by a relative, is expected to survive after landing in a dirt yard.

The child’s name was not released.

Tatiana Ogiste, a 15-month-old girl who toppled through the railings of a third-story porch on Levant Street in Dorchester July 3, died Thursday.

A 4-year-old boy was seriously hurt falling out a second-floor bedroom window on Northampton Street Thursday night.

Friday afternoon, a 7-year-old boy suffered minor injuries in a first-floor fall on McLellan Street.

AP-ES-07-11-04 1526EDT