Grandmother died in ‘freak accident’ with reversing car

An inquest heard yesterday how a woman died when her car, with her six-year-old grandson in the front seat, reversed and rolled over her.

At the Coroner’s Court in Co Clare, the jury returned a verdict of accidental death of retired Ennis publican Josephine Lucas (74).

County coroner Isobel O’Dea told the inquest that Ms Lucas’s death was as a result of a “freak accident”.

“It was a dreadful accident and goes beyond words what it is like for the Lucas family.”

The inquest was told by Garda Bernard Condon that the Mazda was in excellent condition.

He had carried out a test putting the car in reverse.“The car’s park brake was released and an attempt was made to start the ignition without putting a foot on the clutch. The result of this was the car moved backwards quickly.”

Earlier the inquest heard that Ms Lucas was shopping with her two grandchildren when the accident occurred at 1.30pm on Sunday February 23rd. Ms Lucas’s five-year-old granddaughter was standing near her at the back of the car when the woman was knocked down and rolled over.

Rolled over body

One of the first on the scene was Anthony O’Keeffe who was travelling with his mother by car into Ennis.

He said he saw a person standing at the open boot of a silver Mazda and saw the car knock her over. He said the car continued to reverse over, rising as it went over her body. “Once the car went over her, it continued reversing at top speed,” he said.

Mr O’Keeffe said: “I got out of our car and tried to stop this car. I ran towards the car and opened the door. Her grandson was in the passenger seat and leaning over the centre console reaching for the keys.

He added: “The keys were in the ignition, I was 90 per cent sure that the engine was on.”

Mr O’Keeffe said the emergency services were called and a woman was already cradling Ms Lucas on the ground.

The post-mortem found Ms Lucas died as a result of acute cardio-respiratory failure secondary to multiple traumatic chest injuries consistent with a road-traffic accident.

Accidental death verdict

Another eye witness, Claire Coleman, said that as she was crossing the road from Tesco to Aldi, she saw a car reversing, “but it didn’t look like a normal car reversing”.

“A little boy [was] in the driver’s side, it looked like he was standing up.”

The first person to go to Ms Lucas was Maireád Doohan. She was coming out of Aldi when she heard someone say “there is a child in that moving car and no adult. The car reversed across the road slowly as if it was parking.

“I saw a little girl sitting on the footpath and heard someone say, ‘where is your mammy?’.”

Ms Doohan put Ms Lucas in the recovery position, but could not find a pulse. Efforts were made to resuscitate Ms Lucas but she was pronounced dead at 2.25pm.

The first garda on the scene, Niall Cosgrove, said the engine was “still running and the handbrake was off”.

Ms Lucas’s son Philip, father of the two children, said his wife had phoned him about the incident on Ennis’s Francis Street.

He went to the scene and identified his mother and accompanied his children in the ambulance to University Hospital Limerick.

Ms O’Dea advised the jury that “accidental death” was the most appropriate verdict and, after briefly considering this, the jury returned that verdict.