‘Unmanned electric car hit boy, 5, and broke his leg’

An electric-powered Renault hybrid car, having been parked by its driver, raced of its own accord across a car park, striking and injuring a five-year-old child, a judge heard Tuesday.

Barrister Fiona Crawford told Judge Terence O’Sullivan that Sean Leahy’s mother, Jean Leahy, bravely attempted to pull her son and other children clear of the path of the driverless car, but it had struck Sean, breaking his right leg.

Ms Crawford, who appeared for Sean with Patrick Geaney Solicitors, said, in the Circuit Civil Court, that the car had continued until it crashed into another parked vehicle, on the opposite side of the car park attached to Arabian Nights Gym, Baldoyle Industrial Estate, Dublin 13.