Safety measures urged after boy is run over

Safety measures must be installed at the housing complex where a six-year-old boy was run over by a car as he played marbles, an inquest jury recommended tonight.

The coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, said he would write to Dublin City Council, which operates Pearse House off Dublin’s Hanover Street, where Conor Roche was fatally injured.

The nine-member inquest jury returned a verdict of accidental death on the boy who was run over by a blue Daewoo Lanos driven by David Cleary.

Mr Cleary, who had just moved into the housing complex, said: “I am truly sorry this has occurred.”

Michael Roche told the inquest that his younger brother was playing marbles on his own on the shore, or manhole cover, outside their block at around 5pm on Friday October 17, 2003.

He said: “I heard a rumbling noise like a car going over a cardboard box.”

A friend of the family, Stephen Dillon, said Conor was out by himself while waiting for his friend Ryan Delany to join him.

Mr Dillon said Conor was bent over facing towards the Hanover Street entrance gate.

He said the right front wheel had run over Conor, dragging him for a few feet, and the back was resting on his stomach.

Mr Dillon said he told the driver there was a kid under the car and he acted surprised.

The driver of the car reversed to free Conor and then called on a mobile for emergency services.

Conor, accompanied by his mother Breda, was taken to Temple Street Children’s Hospital where he died just after midnight on the morning of October 18 last.

The jury at Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard he received multiple injuries, mostly internal, in relation to the abdomen, and a fracture at the base of skull.

Mr Cleary told the inquest he drove into his new accommodation in the complex just before 5.30pm that evening with his wife Cindy.

He said he was driving at less than five miles per hour due to the narrow nature of the gate.

He said he did not see anything and he felt a bump and thought it might be a brick or a lump of timber.

Mr Cleary said: “I do not know how he came to be below the line of vision of the car.”

The inquest heard there was good visibility, it was daylight and the road was dry.

Detective Garda Jerome Twomey, a crime scene examiner at Pearse Street Garda Station, said: “It was hard to be exact but I suspect he was probably in the kneeling position to play marbles, which would be the natural position to be in.”

Sergeant Colin Finn, of the regional traffic division at Dublin Castle, said the entrance was narrow and vision was restricted by the height and shade of the building until the end wall at the entrance.

He said Mr Cleary would not have been able to see the shore where Conor was playing due to several obstacles.

The jury recommended Sgt Finn’s safety guidelines for the complex be implemented.

Sgt Finn said mirrors should be fitted in both directions to assist drivers to see around the corners.

The jury panel also recommended the sign at the entrance ‘Drive Dead Slow’ should be highlighted and another sign saying ‘Children at Play’ be added.