A three-year-old child who was alleged to have been run over by a car at the Dublin Zoo car park in Phoenix Park, has lost a €60,000 damages claim he brought through his mother against a Co Cork motorist.
Amela Kacar, mother of now five-year-old Noah Fox, of Station Road, Hansfield Station Quarter, Dublin 15, told Judge Fiona O’Sullivan in the Circuit Civil Court her son’s left leg had been run over by Laura Collins, of Coronea, Skibbereen, during a visit to the zoo in August 2023.
Ms Kacar (37) told the court Noah had been standing near the rear corner of her car when Ms Collins’s Skoda Kodiak hit him and ran over his left lower leg, causing a deep abrasion to his foot. She said she pulled her child from under Ms Collins’s car after it had stopped.
She said he was taken by ambulance to Temple Street Children’s Hospital where X-rays revealed he did not have a fracture, but he was kept in hospital for treatment. He had been left with a permanent scar.
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Cross-examined by barrister Shane English, who appeared with Padraig O’Mairtin of Ennis Solicitors for Ms Collins’s insurers Aviva, Ms Kacar agreed Noah and his four-year-old brother had been standing between two cars while she attempted to put her bag in his buggy.
She said she had not seen the collision with the Skoda, but heard a scream and a bang. She saw her son lying under the Skoda, with his head close to its rear wheel. She denied that Noah had run on to the lane between parked vehicles.
Mr English told her that not only did it not happen as she had described to the court, but her son had unfortunately run out from between two cars and there was nothing Ms Collins could do about it. He had run into the side and front wheel of her car.
“You decided to leave three- and four-year-old boys standing without your supervision between two parked cars in a busy car park,” Mr English said. “Your three-year-old ran out from beside your car. It was an accident and fortunately my client was travelling slowly.”
Ms Collins (36) said that after having dropped her parents and her children at the entrance to the zoo, she had driven off to find a parking space. She had been travelling at about 4km/h-6km/h between rows of cars, when she suddenly spotted the head of a little boy running out from between two of them.
She told Mr English she had braked, and the child had run into the front wheel and wheel arch of her car. She had been stopped or almost stopped when the boy hit the side of her car.
Judge O’Sullivan said she was not satisfied from the evidence that Ms Kacar had discharged the necessary burden of proof of negligence by Ms Collins, and dismissed the boy’s claim with an order for costs against his mother.
