Driver tells inquest into death of west Belfast girl killed in collision she is ‘sorry you lost your beautiful child’
A driver involved in a road accident that claimed the life of a seven-year-old girl in west Belfast has apologised to the child’s family during an emotional inquest hearing.Kaitlin McCoubrey-Fullerton died after being struck by a car in Springhill Avenue on the afternoon of April 3, 2021.She had been out playing with her sister and friends in her aunt’s street and was crossing the road through a gap between two parked cars at a speedbump when the collision occurred.The Coroner’s Court in Belfast heard on Monday how the child was struck by the front of the car going over the speedbump, before she went under it.A pathologist found Kaitlin died as a result of a head injury in the collision.Kaitlin’s father Andrew Fullerton told the court how his daughter had been out playing “cops and robbers”, and had been making her way to a local park, catching up with her friends who she had fallen behind, when she was struck.He spoke of his “bubbly wee girl” who was one of four daughters, and she now had a “brother she will never meet”.He said Kaitlin’s friends, including her sister, were on the other side of the road when she exited the gap in the parked cars to cross.“She had everything to look forward to, between her birthday and Holy Communion, and she didn’t even get to make it,” he said.A resident in the street who was outside his house when the tragedy occurred told the inquest he witnessed a girl “run out” through the gap, and he was about to shout for her to watch out, but it was “just too late”.John Norney added the blue Renault car involved in the collision “wasn’t going fast”. “It looked like the child was stuck to the front of the bonnet,” he said, adding he believed he heard a noise, “like the driver was revving while trying to stop”.Mr Norney saw the child go under the car, and he ran out to the scene, where he saw Kaitlin lying “motionless” on the ground.“There was no pulse. Her eyes were wide open - there was no sign of life,” he added.Another neighbour, Padraic Pearse Mulvenna, who had also been outside, said he heard a “scraping noise” as the Renault went over the speedbump before hearing a “thud”.As the car passed, he “saw a small child roll out from under the car”.In “disbelief”, he dialled 999, and as people gathered to the scene, he went to the Renault, now stopped in the road, and saw a woman in the driver’s seat who “seemed to be frozen, seemed to be in shock”.Mr Mulvenna estimated the Renault’s speed at “around 20 miles per hour”, but admitted when asked by a barrister representing the driver that it could have been less.A third neighbour, Seana O’Riordan, also said in her statement that she thought she heard “revving” after the impact “that I thought was in panic”.In her statement, she said when she ran to Kaitlin, she saw a “tyre mark” on the child’s back. Ms O’Riordan also estimated the car had been travelling at around 20 miles per hour.The driver of the Renault, Deirdre Crawford, said she had been driving that day with her two adult daughters to bring flowers to a work colleague.She said the only thing she saw before the collision was a “flash of red hair” before her daughter “screamed” at her to brake.Ms Crawford’s two daughters exited the car to attend the scene, but her own “legs wouldn’t work”, adding: “I was numb.”“I didn’t set out to do this - I don’t think I could reasonably have done anything to prevent what happened,” she said in her statement.Ms Crawford told the court she was “definitely not” travelling at 20 mph, and her speed had been “appropriate”.“All I saw was a flash of red from the passenger side – I didn’t even see the child," she said.“My daughter shouted ‘brake’. I didn’t understand why I had to break.”Ms Crawford said she began breaking “right away” while still on the speedbump.She said she did not rev the engine when asked by a barrister representing Kaitlin’s family if she might have “panicked and hit the wrong pedal”.Asked if there was any reason witnesses reported a “revving”, Ms Crawford said she hit the brake, adding: “That’s my truth.”Speaking of Kaitlin’s family, she tearfully said: “I’m sure they hate us, and I really don’t blame them. I have two daughters and they are my best friends - I don’t know what my life would be without them.”She said it was “heart rending” for Kaitlin’s family to hear her evidence, and said of the child’s father, she was “sorry” he never saw his daughter in her First Communion dress, nor would see her get married.“It’s terrible, but I want to say I done nothing wrong,” she said.“I’m sorry you lost your beautiful child. It’s just so sad for everybody concerned.”She said she was told by police it was not appropriate to approach Kaitlin’s family in the time since the accident.“Not a day goes by that I don’t want to sit down with the family and talk about it,” she added.Her daughter, Shauna-Marie Crawford, said her mother had performed a “textbook emergency stop”. She told the inquest she had tried to reach for the handbrake to get the car to stop “as quickly as possible” upon seeing Kaitlin run out.She added tearfully: ”I think about Kaitlin every day, and her sisters and her wee brother as well.“There’s nothing we can say or do that’s going to help. We’re so sorry. There’s not a day that we don’t think about that wee angel.”The inquest will continue on Wednesday.
