‘Something has to come out of his death’ says Roseann Brennan after death of her son Jake

The heartbroken mother of a six-year-old boy killed by a car has launched a nationwide campaign to have speed ramps and reduced speed limits introduced in housing estates.

Roseann Brennan watched in horror along with other family members as her son Jake was thrown into the air by a car yards from her house at Lintown Grove, Kilkenny, on June 12 last.

Jake died in her arms and she doesn’t want any other family to suffer the same pain.

He was Chris and Roseann Brennan’s eldest child — a big brother to Kaelem, three, and two-month-old Savannah.

Roseann had Savannah in her arms as she watched her son cross the road and suddenly to her horror saw him being thrown in the air.

“When I got to him he was trying to say he was sorry for what happened. I reassured him it wasn’t his fault. He said he didn’t want to die and I reassured him he wouldn’t. But then blood started coming up his throat and he was in terrible pain,” said Roseann, who is a childcare worker.

She said she was shocked to discover that the speed limit in built-up estates was 50km/h (30m/h).

“Something has to come out of his death and this is why we have started the campaign.”

Roseann says that speed ramps should installed in all housing estates, along with a maximum speed limit of 30km/h at first, with a view to eventually reducing it to 20km/h.

Roseann said she’d been campaigning for years to get the ramps installed in her estate and didn’t want to see any other child dying because measures weren’t put in place to slow cars down.

She also feels gardaí should carry out more speed checks in estates, especially where there are large numbers of children present.

“Both private developers and the councils should be made to install speed ramps,” she said.

“If those measures had have been in place my Jakey might have only had a broken leg or a broken arm and we’d have been here with him today.”

It’s expected that the issue will be raised at a meeting of Kilkenny City Council next Monday.

Yesterday friends were asking locals to sign a petition in the city and in the nearly 10,000 people have signed a online petition which was started last week.

Roseann is urging as many people as possible to sign the online petition at www.facebook.com/jakeslegacy