Lower speed limits in all estates, urges jury
The call was made at the inquest into the June 2014 death of Jake Brennan from Kilkenny, which heard how he lay dying in his mother’s arms moments after he was hit by a car.
The jury also called for improved signage in housing estates after it was heard that emergency services had trouble finding the cul-de-sac where Jake lived. It took the ambulance crew four minutes to drive across Kilkenny City to the estate, but a further three minutes to find his Lintown Grove home, while a garda described the area as “a maze”.
Jake died from crush injuries to his chest and abdomen as a result of being struck by a car, the jury decided in accordance with medical evidence.
Dr Michael Curtis, the deputy state pathologist, said the injuries were “consistent with being run over and dragged by the front bodywork of a vehicle”.
Dr Brendan Doyle, the coroner, will write to the Department of Transport regarding the speed limits and improved signage.
Jake’s mother, Roseann Brennan, said she and her three children had been in McDonagh Junction shopping centre on the evening of June 12, 2014, before returning home to her husband, Christopher, who was getting their dinner ready.
The children had ice-cream and played in the shopping centre’s play area. Jake said that “it’s the best day of my life”, she told the inquest. They were due to go to a show that night.
At home he sang a song and the children had their dinner on a little table and chairs in the front lawn.
Her brother-in-law, Pat O’Hara, arrived to return Christopher’s lawnmower and they chatted for a few minutes. Just as Pat was about to leave, Jake asked his mother if he could go across the road to the green. She was going to say no but said yes, for a few minutes.
She then saw a car, heard a bang, “and I knew”. She screamed “no” and “Jake” and saw him going up into the air and coming down again. “I knew by how far he went up that he was destroyed.”
Roseann ran over to Jake and he was saying “Mammy, Mammy, I’m sorry”. As she held him, she told him it wasn’t his fault. He said: “Mammy I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die.” Blood came up his throat and she said “you’re OK baby”, but his breathing became slower.
The ambulance arrived but, Roseann said, “I knew he was gone and never coming back.”
The paramedics worked on Jake for some time before bringing him to hospital in the ambulance with his parents accompanying them. He was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.
Roseann told her solicitor, Michael Lanigan, she had since campaigned for speed limits in housing estates, currently at 50km/h, to be reduced to 20km/h and wanted this to be ‘Jake’s Law’ and her son’s legacy.
Christopher Brennan said he made the 999 call after Jake was struck and said to the driver of the car involved, “you were speeding”, which she denied.
He recalled saying to his son in the ambulance: “Jake I know you’re strong, please don’t leave.” He said Jake was “the rock of the family”.
The driver of the car that hit Jake, Katarzyna Biala, aged 39, was not well enough to be at the inquest, but a statement she gave to gardaí was read out.
She said she wasn’t speeding and never saw Jake from the side, just when her car hit him. “He just flew up in the air a bit. It happened so fast. I don’t know where he came from,” she said.
She was “in shock” afterwards. She also told gardaí she thought she was driving at about 20km/h to 30km/h.
The inquest heard that, after a Garda investigation and a file being sent to the DPP’s office, a decision was made by the DPP not to bring any prosecution.
Forensic collision investigator Garda Maurice Mahon said that, based on the point of impact outlined by Roseann and the distance Ms Biala would have travelled from her house nearby, the car was travelling at between 44km/h and 46km/h.
