Boy, four, dies after being hit by mother’s car

A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy was killed on Saturday when he was accidentally knocked down by his mother in a tragic incident in the driveway of their family home.

The boy has been named as Paul Carroll, of Ballinabrackey, Kinnegad, Co Westmeath.

It is understood the boy and his father were getting turf at the front of the house as the boy’s mother was driving towards the house.

The child ran towards the car to greet his mother but she was blinded by the evening sun and did not see him and ran over him.

The boy’s father drove him to Kinnegad Garda Station, from where gardaí drove them to Mullingar Hospital but the boy was dead on arrival.

Three other people lost their lives in road accidents over the weekend, bringing to 36 the numbers killed on Irish roads in the first 29 days of the year.

Two friends who died in a collision in Lismore, Co Waterford in the early hours of Saturday morning were named as Thomas O’Grady, aged 21, from West St, Lismore, and 20-year-old Robert Lineen from Owbeg, Lismore.

And gardaí in Naas, Co Kildare, were last night appealing for witnesses to a single vehicle crash which claimed the life of a 27-year-old non-national at Kill, Co Kildare. The man died when his car collided with road works. A front-seat passenger in the car was recovering in Naas General Hospital yesterday.

Meanwhile, a safety campaigner yesterday warned Ireland could face one of the bleakest years ever for road carnage unless motorists slow down and show the same level of restraint as when the penalty points system was introduced.

Former head of the National Safety Council, Eddie Shaw, said given the high death toll so far this year, last year’s tally of 399 deaths could be surpassed unless there are changes in driving behaviour.

“There is a quick-fix solution to this and it happened before. It happened between November 2, 2002 and the end of February 2003,” he said.

“It was when penalty points were first introduced. People changed the way they drove. They slowed down for four months and we saw road deaths fall from 29 a month to 21 a month.

“If we could repeat that, slow down by as little as 7kmph, we would save lives,” he claimed.

He proposed an education programme in schools which would inform pupils and address attitudes.

He also says the state of our non-national roads must be addressed and warned road signage must be improved.