The driver of a car that caused an horrific car accident in Kilbride, Carlow and cut off oxygen to an unborn baby is still at large, Dublin Coroner’s court heard on Monday.
The court heard from Nombini Carey with an address in the Laurels, Tullow Road, Carlow who said that a dangerous manoeuvre from the missing driver, forced her at nine month’s pregnant into a collision that caused the death of her unborn baby on Saturday morning August 11, 2007.
Ms Carey told the court she was forced to take "violent evasive action" in her Fiat Punto on the Carlow to Bunclody road because the driver of either a blue Mercedes or a blue Volkswagen Passat, had overtaken a large Morrissey’s lorry and was veering right for her. She lost control of her car and hit a trailer on her way into the roadside ditch. The court heard she was rushed to St Luke’s hospital where she was forced to undergo an emergency caesarean section to try and save her baby. But once they discovered the baby was no longer living, they transferred Ms Carey to the Coombe Hospital where her son Brian was delivered stillborn.
The court heard the baby died due to placental damage, which shut off his oxygen supply.
In evidence the driver of the Morrissey’s lorry, Patrick O'Neill, said the missing driver was driving dangerously.
“He should have known there was a bend ahead. There is a continuous white line ahead. He obviously felt he just could not wait.”
Dublin coroner Dr Brian Farrell, said the evidence suggested the accident and the baby’s death were related.
"This was clearly a dangerous manoeuvre, taken by the other vehicle, which resulted in the collision which caused the baby's death," he said.
The court apologised to Ms Carey and her husband Thomas on the loss of the baby. Gardaí have still not located the driver of the vehicle.
