A 21-MONTH-OLD boy was killed instantly when struck by a jeep after straying from the garden of a home in Co Roscommon where he was holidaying with his parents, an inquest was told today.

Harrowing and distressing details of the circumstances in which Brandon Thomas Byrne, Inglewood Road, Clonsilla, Dublin, lost his life on 19 August, 2022, was provided to the Coroner for Roscommon, Brian O’Connor at an inquest in Ballaghaderreen.

The fatal impact, which occurred on a laneway in the townland of Ballyglass, Ballinagare, involved a 4×4 Hilux jeep driven by Noel Feely from Creeve, Elphin.

Mr Feely was reversing down the laneway delivering feed in buckets to cattle when the breakfast time tragedy occurred.

The infant’s mother, Louise Kehir, in a deposition to gardaí read by Sergeant Shane Kelliher to today’s inquest said she and her fiancée, Andrew, and Brandon were staying at her ‘home place’ after returning from a trip to Donegal.

She described how on 19 August, 2022, Brandon awoke after sleeping for twelve hours and had been playing peek-a-boo with a duvet with his father in the bedroom before she prepared breakfast while Andrew stayed in bed.

Ms Kehir said that at 8.50 a.m. when she had finished breakfast, she took Brandon from his high chair. He started playing with the keys from the kitchen door. Afterwards they pottered about on the front drive where Brandon presented her with a tree leaf.

Continuing, Ms Kehir said she was dusting the ashes off the stove when she saw a man outside and asked what he wanted.

“He then asked me if I had a little boy with yellow wellingtons…that there had been an accident. I asked him if he was joking”.

Ms Kehir described the man’s behaviour as ‘callous’ and ‘strange’.

She said she had shouted at the driver ‘you killed my son’ while Andrew shouted to him ‘you killed my son”.

Continuing her deposition, Ms Kehir asked: “How could he not have seen a boy in bright clothes with yellow wellingtons?”

Outlining her trauma over what had happened she said: “I can’t see myself ever going  back to Ballyglass again. I have been going there for thirty eight years.”

Cross examined by Donal Keigher, solicitor for the deceased’s family, Ms Kehir said she was surprised at the reaction of the man.

“If that was me I would be screaming. He did not even try to warn me about what had happened.”

In his deposition to gardaí, which was read to the inquest, Andrew Byrne said he was in bed when he heard screaming and found his son’s body on the road.

Mr Byrne continued: “He (the driver) said to me, ‘I have to live with this for the rest of my life’. I replied: ‘We have to live with this for the rest of our lives’.”

James Kehir, father of Louise Kehir, told of witnessing  a “brutal scene” when alerted by Andrew to the accident.

He said the scene in the aftermath of the accident had been “very tense” and he had to try to calm everybody down.

The driver of the death crash vehicle, James Feely, with an address at Creeve, Elphin, did not attend today’s hearing despite being summoned to do so by Coroner O’Connor.

He sent a medical certificate as evidence that he was medically unfit to attend.

In a deposition to gardaí read into evidence, Mr Feely said he was checking cattle on land owned by him on the morning the accident occurred.

He said there was no place to turn on the laneway, so he reversed after checking his mirror. His speed was minimal and his reversing lights were on.

Continuing his deposition, Mr Feely said he hadn’t realised at first he had hit somebody.

He had heard “a little bump” and thought something had fallen off a tree onto his jeep.

Concluding his statement, the driver expressed remorse.

“I am deeply sorry for the loss of life of a beautiful young child on the laneway that day.”

Donal Keigher, solicitor for the family of the deceased, said the fact that the driver was reversing was laziness on his part and that he was too lazy to open a gate at the end of the roadway to turn the vehicle around.

The claim by Feely there was no place to turn on the laneway was strongly disputed by Mr Keigher, who said his claim was very much at odds with the evidence of the family.

Returning a verdict of accidental death, Coroner O’Connor said Brandon’s death was the result of a tragic accident.

He conveyed his sympathy to the family.