Girl fatally injured after fall from trailer

A young girl was fatally injured when she hit her head off the road after falling from a tractor-trailer as she tried to stop her hat from blowing away.

Sophie Pearson, 9, lived for another five days following the accident on a road near the family farm at Coolbally, Clough, Ballacolla, Co Laois, on July 13 last year, but never recovered from severe head injuries suffered in the fall.

Her father David Pearson told Dublin Coroner’s Court he was transferring bales of hay that day and Sophie and her brothers Scott, 10, and Ben, 7, had begged him to be taken for a “spin” on the trailer. The bales were being loaded from a field half a mile away.

“The kids had been pestering me all day to go for a spin on the trailer… So, when I was going up for the last load, I brought them with me.”

On the return journey to the house, Sophie and Ben sat in the trailer on the dip between the bales and they had netting to hold on to. The road was good, with no potholes, Mr Pearson said, and he was driving at 10 to 12 miles an hour. He was being careful and keeping an eye on Sophie and Ben, and they were sitting still.

“Sophie was wearing a peaked cap. Whatever happened, her cap blew off, and she went to grab it. And then she fell off the trailer. I saw her straight away. I stopped and Ben shouted at me ‘Daddy, Sophie!’ I got out of the tractor and I saw Sophie, with most of her body on the grass and the bottom part of her legs on the road. She was lying on her side.”

She tried to lift herself up twice and then started vomiting. Mr Pearson called the emergency services. Scott ran to a neighbouring house for help. The children’s babysitter, Patricia Rea, said she went to the scene after Mr Pearson phoned her. Ben was putting water onto his sister’s face.

Sophie’s mother Diane Pearson was also at the scene when paramedics arrived. They found Sophie was unresponsive but had a pulse.

An air ambulance took Sophie to Tallaght Hospital where scans showed bleeding on the right side of the brain. She was transferred to Temple Street Hospital where attempts to relieve the pressure on her brain failed. She died on July 18 and the family consented to organ donation. The postmortem found that she died from severe head injuries.

Sergeant Mary Gilmartin said she was satisfied it was a “tragic accident” caused when Sophie tried to grab the hat. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.