Lack of instruction manuals breached EU rules
Nine-and-a-half month old Harvey Desmond Burns, from Macroom, Co Cork, suffered fatal head injuries after his incorrectly-fitted baby car seat lunged forward during a car crash and smashed his head into the front passenger seat of his mother’s car, Cork Coroner’s Court heard.
A jury of six women recommended afterwards that the public be made aware of the importance of reading baby seat fitting manuals.
They also recommended that baby seats should only be sold in their packaging.
A tragic chain of events led to the incorrect fitting of the seat.
The inquest heard how Harvey’s mother, Deborah Desmond, bought the Nania Luxe model, made in France, at Kiddi Mart outside Bandon, Co Cork, in January 2006, for €120.
It was on display on the shop floor, was the last of its type in the shop, was not in its packaging, and had no instruction or fitting manual.
Neither did it have, or ever appear to have had, any safety or fitting instruction stickers attached.
This is despite Economic Commission of Europe (ECE) regulation R4403 which states that all infant seats must have a label attached demonstrating how the seat should be fitted.
In her deposition, Ms Desmond, who has suffered major trauma since the accident, said the man who sold her the seat outlined the fitting instructions which she passed on to her family.
But engineering expert Dr Denis Wood, who examined the seat after the accident, said that on the day of the crash, it was not fitted correctly. The lap section of the rear seat belt had been passed correctly through the base of the baby seat but the vertical section of the seat belt was not fitted correctly.
This allowed the baby seat to tilt forward and to the right in the impact, he said.
Assistant State pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, said Harvey suffered major head injuries, consistent with his head hitting the back of the front passenger seat.
Team Tex’s sales manager, Philippe Charlaix, said the seat was one of 26 made in June 2005 and that three from that batch had passed all safety tests.
He said he had no explanation why Harvey’s seat did not have the safety labels.
But these on their own would not be enough, he stressed. He said reading the instruction manual is vital.
The inquest heard how Harvey was strapped into his baby seat, in the back seat of his mother’s red Hyundai, on June 27.
Ms Desmond and Harvey were on their way home from Bandon when the accident happened.
Ms Desmond’s car glanced of a car in front of her and veered across the main Cork to Macroom road before colliding almost head-on with another car just outside Lissarda at about 2.30pm.
Maura McSweeney told the court that Ms Desmond’s car was driving very close to the rear of her car outside Lissarda.
Then she felt an impact on the back of her car before seeing the Hyundai veer across the road and collide with a silver Honda.
Its driver, Mary O’Donovan, who had her three children, Niamh, aged five, James, five, and Lisa, nine, belted into the back seat, said she had no chance of avoiding the impact.
Ms Desmond said she remembers her head hitting the windscreen and then screaming for help for her son. Harvey went in to respiratory arrest.
Ambulance driver Jamie Lyons, who was on his way to Kerry with a patient, managed to revive Harvey before he was rushed by another ambulance to CUH. But he was declared brain dead on June 28.
Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane expressed her sympathies to the family and praised Ms Desmond and her partner, Edward Burns, for donating their child’s liver and kidneys for organ transplants.
The jury recorded a verdict of accidental death.
