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A THREE-YEAR-old child suffered catastrophic injuries in a road crash on her way to crèche, an inquest heard.
Abigael Conlon was strapped into car seat in the back seat of her father’s BMW when the crash occurred on the R413 at New Abbey Road in Co Kildare on 1 February 2018.
The force of the impact left Abigael with multiple traumatic injuries and she died three days later on 4 February.
Speaking after the inquest, her father Colm Conlon said the death of his first born was ‘truly a huge loss.’
“From the moment she came into our lives Abigael made a big impact. She was our bright-eyed little girl. She had a smile that would melt anyone’s heart,” he said.
He and Abigael left their home at Boleybeg, Ballymore Eustace, Co Kildare to drive 6km to the crèche in Kilcullen that morning.
“We woke at 7.30am and Abigail picked out her clothes and opted to eat breakfast at the crèche. It was chilly. She hopped into the car and I connected her car seat belt,” Conlon said.
He was driving along the R413 at New Abbey Road between Brannockstown and Kilcullen when the collision occurred at 8.05am.
“I noticed a jeep in my lane approaching with speed. I had no time to respond,” Conlon said.
He was left dazed and seriously injured by the impact and described the pain as ‘excruciating.’
“When I realised that happened, I immediately thought of my daughter. She was lying down on her legs, her beautiful little face was looking at me,” he said.
“I said ‘No Abigael you can’t be gone, please God no’, but she was not breathing.”
Driver of the oncoming Volvo Jeep, Paul Gorry, said he lost control of his jeep on black ice as he rounded the bend. He was travelling at the speed limit, which was 80kmph, the inquest heard.
“I was trying to get my car back on my side of the road,” he said.
“The black ice was a complete surprise to me as the roads were fine up to then,” he said.
Witnesses who came upon the scene described slipping on ice as they attempted to help the occupants of the two vehicles.
Witness Dan Byrne saw Abigael injured in her car seat.
“She was slumped forward. She had a weak, dull pulse. We were whispering because we didn’t want the father to hear us,” he said.
Abigael was rushed to Temple Street Hospital where she died due to her injuries. The cause of death was brain damage due to injuries and trauma sustained in a road traffic accident.
Her father said he’d bought the car seat a few weeks previously and it was a particularly high quality model.
“We were hit so hard the seatbelts couldn’t hold Abigail. Her little body broke through the straps,” he said.
Garda Paul Monaghan, forensic collision investigator said speed could not be calculated due to the lack of brake marks at the scene.
“The main causation factor was the Volvo losing control on the icy surface and travelling into the path of the other vehicle,” he said.
Gardaí submitted a file to the Director of Public Prosecution and no charges were brought.
The jury returned a verdict of misadventure and recommended the speed limit be reduced to 60kph where the crash occurred. They jury recommended that road signs warning of black ice be erected in the area and that the council consider making improvements to the road to prevent future similar tragedies.
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This is so heartbreaking. My deepest condolences
Absolutely heartbreaking I cannot imagine their pain. Hopefully they find strength from somewhere to help them through.
Devastating, I wouldn’t know how to cope after such a tragedy, god bless little one.
There are no words :-(
As a father of Little ones, I don’t like the option of high back boosters, or low ones at that. Basically once your done with the double harness baby seat at 2/3 the options are terrible. A slight child on booster with a standard seat belt at 4 years of age isn’t sufficient protection
@RJ: many seats are now being made to keep kids rear-facing up until age 6-7. Our regulatuons are the minimum standard, there are much safer options available than the law requires. There’s a fb page for extended rear-facing which is great for advice on what seats fit what cars etc.
Sincere condolences to Abigail’s family, you shouldn’t bury your children. Thoughts are also with the driver too. Horrible freakish accident. Too sad a gorgeous bright eyed little girl.
I hope to God that they will all find a bit of peace and they will
We all get so uptight about nothing when you read this
My deepest condolences to Abigeal’s family as well as the other driver. I’m so sorry your little girl is gone. xxx
@Lynne Anthony: my thoughts exactly.
Children are not possessions but are loaned. They all fly away but some leave far too early. Memories however, are like cash payments that we will always treasure, so they owe us nothing and we owe them nothing in return. It’s enough to know that we shared our lives with angels and that they were very happy with that arrangement.
After this the RSA needs to revisit child restraint standards. Abigael’s parents paid top dollar for a child seat which ultimately failed them and little angel Abigael. I have absolutely no doubt the RSA won’t do a thing, won’t do diddly squat, until they are dragged, kicking and screaming into planet reality in a court case as is the traditional position with all government quangos. This, despite the chance of Leo ‘over-promising’ yet again. See the Hepatitis C cases, the Cervical checks, the Army deafness, the Magdalene laundries debacle and the many other cases where they knew that they were deficiencies but chose to do nothing until honest, decent citizens were forced to ‘claim’ to justify themselves. Eight years ago the RSA promised us that, after a junket, sorry a working visit to Finland, that we could look forward to learner drivers being legally allowed to receive instruction on how to drive on motorways in the near future. Even though a Martian can see the problems on the M50 the RSA, despite their Finnish junket cannot, but they are very big on promoting their revenue gathering vans, sorry, sorry, GoSafe speed vans. Yet another quango which like ‘copy and paste’ Tusla only does the decent and honest citizens of this country a total disservice.
@Pat Farrelly: the RSA standards are the minimum, parents can and do buy higher spec models, typically as expensive and high end as they can afford, unfortunately, there are limits to all engineering in extreme situations like a collision. As for the rest of your comment, that’s just a poetical rant and most definitely doesn’t belong under this article.
As a parent I can only hope her parents find peace, but I can only imagine how hard that will be
@Vocal Outrage: My post refers to the father referring to a failing of the restraint mechanism of the child seat. ‘Her body broke through the straps’. You, like most posters here probably have not even bothered to read the story before pontificating from your ivory tower. The safety mechanisms provided by the car manufacturer for the father saved HIS life. Thus the limits of engineering that you refer to are good enough to save the fathers life but the sub-adequate child seat could not save baby Abigael despite it being a top of the range model, bought by utterly loving parents who only wanted the very best for their beloved daughter. Therefore, respectfully, my ‘rant’ is not in fact, a rant but is, in fact, valid comment on the woefully bumbling inadequacy of the RSA on their policing of child seat standards and as a support of my argument I also mentioned the daily and ongoing M50 circus. I completly stand over both arguments with no apology to you.
@Vocal Outrage: P.S. Thank you, I have never been described as ‘poetical’ before. I am flattered.
@Pat Farrelly: actually, I did read it, both as a professional engineer and as a father of a small child, so very far from an ivory tower, this is my daily life bringing a child to creche.
It was the fact that you were mentioning things like the M50, which had nothing to do with the incident in question that your comment can be described as a rant. As for your comment about no apology to me, I don’t recall looking for one
@Vocal Outrage: If, as you claim, you are an expert, how do you find it acceptable that, as per the article, that the belts retaining Abigael failed. Her restraints failed, her fathers didn’t. They failed. How is that acceptable to anyone? The M50 is relevant, most relevant, because both child safety seat standards and the daily Ben Hur Circus Maximus chariot race on the M50 are both overseen by the same shower of self-serving jobsworths. A number of years ago I was at a seminar where we were informed by the RSA that the Brits had just introduced a new part to their driving test. At a certain point in the test the examiner would tell the student driver ‘take me to Oxford’ or wherever and they are expected to do so by following the road signs and that a similar module would be introduced to the Irish driving test ‘in the near future’. Just like the promised ability to instruct student drivers on motorways, years later, it still has not materialised. At the seminar I put my hand up and after getting the nod I asked that given the woeful standard of road signage in Ireland did the RSA really think that such an idea was viable. I am still waiting for an answer. More things that the RSA ignore are worn away road markings, trees, bushes, etc growing and obscuring road signs, worn road surfaces including huge potholes and so on because that would upset various county councils apple carts if they highlighted these real dangers and money had to be spent fixing them. But as I have already mentioned they are very quick to promote their revenue gathering vans to show us just how pro-active that they are.
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