Road-safety measures should be installed in a flats complex in Dublin, according to a coroner's court jury which yesterday returned a verdict of accidental death in the case of a six-year-old child who was struck by a car as he played marbles.
Conor Roche was hit by a car while playing outside 1A Pearse House, Hanover Street, Dublin, on October 17th, 2003.
In a statement read to the court yesterday, Michael Roche said his brother was playing on a manhole outside their block between 5 p.m. and 5.30 p.m.
He heard a car come into the complex and then a noise like someone "running over a cardboard box". He said he saw Conor under the car and his shoe behind it. The driver reversed a couple of feet so Conor could be picked up. He was taken by ambulance to Temple Street Hospital.
Another witness, Stephen Dillon, said Conor was waiting for his friend Ryan Delaney to come and play marbles. He saw a car drive into the complex carrying planks of wood. The front bumper hit Conor, and the front right wheel caught him and dragged him for some distance. He saw him caught under the back right wheel.
Garda Brendan O'Halloran from Pearse Street said he spoke to the driver, Mr David Cleary, who was in a "distressed and shocked" state. Mr Cleary was carrying out renovations on a house in the complex.
Garda O'Halloran said the boy, who had serious injuries to his head, underwent surgery in Temple Street Hospital on the evening of the accident but died at 12.10 a.m. on Saturday morning.
Det Garda Jerome Twomey, a crime scene examiner from Pearse Street, said the child was most likely to have been kneeling or lying down at the time of the accident.
Mr David Cleary, the driver of the car, told the court that he was driving very slowly into the entrance of the complex. He saw between 10 and 12 children playing football on one side of him, approximately three children playing near some bins and a further three children cycling.
He felt a thud, which he thought was a brick or lump of timber. He said he was truly sorry for what had happened.
Sgt Colin Finn, from the regional traffic division at Dublin Castle, said the two counter tops, which were being carried on top of the car, didn't impair the vision of the driver.
Describing the entrance to the complex at Hanover Street as an extremely tight corner, he said the combination of the narrow entrance to the complex, high buildings, shade from buildings and the short distance available to the driver made the child "invisible".
The jury, sitting in the Dublin Coroner's Court, recommended that mirrors be placed at the entrance to the complex to improve visibility; that a sign be installed in the area to warn motorists that children might be playing; and that an existing sign warning drivers to "drive dead slow" be highlighted.