A three-year-old girl was fatally injured in a crash moments after a truck driver made “a bad move” to pull out from behind a bus, a court has heard.
At around 9am on March 15, 2017, Vincent Wall, 41, was driving his daughter Estlin to creche in Inagh from Ennistymon, Co Clare.
At Ennis Circuit Court on Wednesday, November 13, prosecutor Shane Costelloe stated that once Mr Wall saw the truck – driven in the opposite direction by Senan O’Flaherty – perform the manoeuvre, his car mounted a grass verge.
He tried to move his car back on to the road, lost control and it spun around causing it to collide with an oncoming Skoda, two cars behind the truck driven by O’Flaherty.
Mr Costelloe said the accused and the bus driver ahead of him continued on their journey not realising a crash had just occurred.
As a result of injuries sustained in the fatal incident, Estlin was resuscitated at the scene, airlifted to University Hospital Limerick and later transferred to Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin.
Estlin's life support machine was switched off three days later.
Her father suffered serious head injuries in the crash and was placed in an induced coma, missing his girl’s funeral.
Estlin’s mother Amy allowed her daughter’s lungs and kidneys be donated to give others a chance of life and has since spoken publicly encouraging other parents to find the strength to do the same in such tragic circumstances describing Estlin as a “double life saver”.
O’Flaherty, 62, of Lower Gowerhass, Cooraclare, has pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention causing the death of little Estlin and serious bodily harm to her father Vincent.
Judge Gerald Keys adjourned the case to December 9 and remanded O’Flaherty on continuing bail.
