Inquest told how Cork toddler was hit by tractor driven by father
Fionn Cashman suffered fatal head injuries after he wandered out into the yard at his home in Drominane, Killeagh, in east Cork, while his father Conor was moving a straw bale between sheds on their land on May 8, 2014.
A statement given by Mr Cashman last summer was read into evidence at Midleton Coroner’s Court yesterday. The vet said that he had front loaded the bale onto his 1988 Case International tractor and was approaching the shed at an angle where he dropped it at approximately 12.25pm on the day in question.
Mr Cashman said that the engine on the tractor was revving loudly, and he was wearing ear muffs. He said that he reversed the tractor back from the sliding door entrance of the shed but did not see Fionn until he spotted him lying on the ground after he had moved the tractor back.
He immediately knew there was something wrong, and realised that the rear left wheel must have hit his son, despite not feeling any impact upon reversing. No other vehicles were in the yard at the time of the incident.
Fionn was pronounced dead at the farm before he could be brought to Cork University Hospital.
Deputy State pathologist Margot Bolster said that the child died of a crush injury to the head. Dr Bolster said that he died of a severe trauma brain injury, that death was instantaneous and that Fionn would not have suffered.
Describing the incident as “tragic and unlucky”, coroner Frank O’Connell said that it would be recorded as an accidental death in a farm place caused by a low speed vehicle run over, namely a tractor.
“It was a simple case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was a most unlucky and unfortunate accident,” he said.
He was joined by the jury and gardaí present in expressing sympathies to Mr Cashman and his wife Deirdre who were present in court for the inquest.
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