A CORONER is to contact the manufacturers of a baby seat following the death of a baby girl who sustained fatal injuries in a road crash when the car seat in which she was restrained failed.
Seven-month-old Hannah McNevin Best of Shanacloon, Ballinagare, Co Roscommon, was a front-seat passenger in a rear-facing car seat on the night of March 6th, 2009, when the car her mother Bernadette McNevin was driving crashed on a bend.
Ms McNevin purchased the car seat, with the brand name Century, which came as part of a buggy, in Argos at The Square, Tallaght, about a month earlier.
The inquest heard yesterday that the restraining point at the back of the seat failed on impact.
Gardaí conducted an examination of the baby seat and found a piece of the car seat, which secures the safety belt, missing from the rear of the seat. The broken piece was found between the seat and the handbrake.
Garda Ciarán Prior agreed with Coroner Dr Brian Farrell that the logical conclusion was the piece must have broken off on impact. “If the evidence is the seat belt was secured by putting the belt through that clip, the implication can be clearly drawn it failed,” said Garda Prior, who added he was satisfied the seat had been secured by Ms McNevin.
A jury at Dublin City Coroner’s Court returned a verdict of accidental death and called for representations to the manufacturer and the Road Safety Authority on the failure of the baby seat.