A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy is recovering in hospital after he rolled on to a busy road on his toy tractor into the path of a passing 4x4 vehicle.
The incident occurred at about 2.30pm yesterday at Claureen on the main Ennis to Lahinch N85 road in Co Clare.
The boy is understood to have left his parents’ home in the nearby Shanballa housing estate without being noticed and made his way on to the main road on his plastic tractor.
He is then believed to have entered the sloped driveway of a nearby house and rolled down the hill on to the road and into the path of a passing 4x4. The couple in the vehicle, thought to be from Co Limerick, were said to be shaken by the incident.
Two cars travelling in the opposite direction and a vehicle driving directly behind the 4x4 managed to stop and avoid a further collision. A number of people ran to the child to offer any assistance they could until the emergency services arrived.
Gardaí closed a section of the road for a time so that a doctor and ambulance paramedics could deal with the injured child.
The boy is understood to have broken a leg while there were also concerns that he had fractured his pelvis. The child was brought by ambulance to the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick, where his condition was described as “stable” last night.
A technical examination of the scene was carried out and gardaí were able to reopen one lane of the road soon afterwards. The entire route was reopened a short time later.