Boy, 4, was crushed by steel door

PARENTS of a four-year-old boy fought back tears as a coroner heard how he died when a thick steel door fell on him.

Daniel Cleary had been helping direct a Manitou telescopic loader driven by his uncle, Raymond Cleary, into position on June 2.

Daniel’s mother, Patricia Cleary, was just metres away and her other son, two-year-old David, was with his uncle in the loader.

The boys loved being in the cabs of working machines around their home at Drumbar, near Donegal, the inquest heard. Only one child was allowed inside the cab with an adult for safety reasons.

“They often like to sit on the cab of one of the working vehicles,” said Mrs Cleary. “David was crying because he wanted to sit up in the cab of the Manitou.”

She told the inquest her brother-in-law was moving two oil drums into a container with steel doors so they would not be stolen. One drum was put in by the loader. Then Daniel mentioned there was a light on in the container and she went to get keys to switch it off.

She told the coroner, Dr Diarmuid Hegarty, and the jury: “Daniel was directing him [Mr Cleary] by way of hand signals.”

A small van blocked her view of what happened next, she said.

“I saw the steel door fall forward. I was only 20 feet away.”

She told the inquest of reaching the door, which Mr Cleary was already lifting.

“I lifted Daniel in my arms and shouted for help. There was blood around his nose. He was not conscious and I knew his injury was serious.”

Raymond Cleary, who has his own construction business, told the inquest that when he was moving the second drum of oil he heard a loud impact from outside his cab.

“I looked to my right and I could see one of the doors had fallen. I could see the door lying flat.

“I lifted it off Daniel. There was blood in Daniel’s nose and mouth.”

The inquest heard that Daniel, who would have been five last August, was pronounced dead at the scene by a doctor.

Pathologist Dr Saman Abdulla, who examined the body at Letterkenny General Hospital, said the main cause of death was a serious fracture to the skull.

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

Dr Hegarty told Mrs Cleary and Daniel’s father, Keith Cleary — who was away on business at the time of the accident — that it was “a tragic, tragic accident” and a blow to his parents and the family.

He added: “I hope with the passage of time you will at least get some degree of closure.”