An Irish family has been left devastated after losing their three-month-old in a car crash. The tot was sitting on his mother’s lap as she drove, and a court heard this week how the deployment of the airbag caused the child’s death.
Theresa Maughan told the Dublin Coroner’s Court how son Paddy Francis “wouldn’t settle” in his baby seat in the back of the car, and she decided to take him onto her lap as she drove. Mrs Maughan was not wearing her seatbelt when she drove her car onto the wrong side of the road and ended up in a collision with another vehicle.
While a garda who attended the scene said that there was a low impact when the cars collided, it was enough to deploy the airbag in Mrs Maughan’s car. Eye witnesses recalled seeing Mrs Maughan roll out of the car and on to grass, clutching her baby in her arms.
Baby Paddy Francis was rushed to Temple Street Hospital having sustained serious head injuries as well as a broken arm and broken ribs. Tragically, the child died two days later.
Speaking at the hearing this week, the child’s father, Peter Maughan, told the court: “My life’s been turned upside-down since that day...It was the airbag that killed that child in the car.”
The court returned a verdict of death by misadventure.
