A toddler was killed after being run over by a family friend’s car ‘because he was so excited to see her’, an inquest has heard.
Rufus Davies, two, was so eager to say hello that he was helped out of his mother’s car when he spotted her in the driveway.
He ran behind the car as it was reversing and suffered fatal head injuries.
Rufus was visiting his family friends in Marlborough, Wiltshire, last May when the accident happened, Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner’s Court heard.
The toddler and his mother, Olivia Davies, were waiting for the friend, Tasmin Haward, to return in Mrs Davies’s car in a driveway.
‘I told Rufus that Tamsin had arrived and he was so excited to see her, he wriggled to get out of the car,’ Mrs Davies said in a written statement.
‘I opened the driver’s door and helped him down. He ran round the back of the car.
‘I figured Tamsin would park the nose of her car straight in next to mine and that in the time between his feet touching the ground and running behind my car she would have parked.
Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner’s Court, pictured, heard that Rufus Davies suffered fatal head injuries in the collision
‘It turns out she wanted to reverse her car in.
‘I reached for my phone, water bottle and jumper from the passenger side, and as I got out of the driver’s door, I heard my daughter say to me, “Mummy, Rufus has been hit by Tamsin’s car”.
‘I then ran to the back of my car and saw Rufus laying on the floor.’
After realising she had struck the toddler, Mrs Hayward exited the car and started CPR while waiting for paramedics to arrive.
He was declared dead at the scene.
In a written statement, Mrs Hayward said she reversed her Porsche Macan slowly onto her drive, which was her usual practice.
She said: ‘Olivia and her daughter were standing on the grass outside their car on the driver’s side.
‘I was really happy to see them and waved at them and said “hello” as I drove in and had my driver’s window down.
‘I knew that Rufus was also coming that day, but he wasn’t standing with Olivia and her daughter on the driver’s side or anywhere to be seen on the driveway when I drove in.
Mrs Hayward said she reversed her Porsche Macan slowly onto her drive and accidentally struck Rufus (stock image)
‘I drove forward into the driveway, moving anti-clockwise around the grass circular island on my driveway.
‘Apart from Olivia and her daughter, the driveway was clear and there was no one else to be seen.
‘I drove approximately 180 degrees around the island, drew to a stop to then reverse back into my usual parking space.’
She said she checked both her wing and rear-view mirror before reversing and reversed slowly.
‘In the second I was looking between my right wing mirror and rear-view mirror, about halfway into the parking spot, I felt the car had gone over something on the driveway,’ she said.
‘The bump I felt was on the passenger’s rear side of the car. I exited the car and saw a child lying on the gravel.
‘To my horror I realised the gravity of the situation, and that Rufus must have been running behind me whilst I was reversing.
‘I then saw Olivia running towards the back of the car with a look of horror on her face. I called 999 immediately.’
Police said Mrs Hayward had not broken the law.
Paramedics declared Rufus dead at the scene (stock image)
PC Alexander Way, a collision investigator added that there were no faults with the car and that Mrs Hayward had tested negative for drugs and alcohol.
He said: ‘The case has failed the Crown Prosecution Service threshold for any prosecution under the Road Traffic Act as the location is not deemed a public place or road, and the driving is not deemed under current case law as careless.
‘It’s an extremely tragic incident with the most devastating of outcomes.’
Rufus died from a diffuse traumatic head injury following an impact with a motor vehicle, a post-mortem examination found.
Ian Singleton, the area coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, recorded a conclusion of misadventure.
‘Rufus was so excited to see Tamsin that he wanted to get out of the car, so he was helped down and ran around the back of his mother’s car, unwittingly into the path of Tamsin’s car,’ he said.
‘The police investigation noted that at 1.3 metres tall, Rufus would not have been visible through the rear window unless he was 4.3 metres away and the parking sensors would not extend that far, creating an area in which a child of Rufus’s height would be invisible.’
Mr Singleton added: ‘That remains me to pass to the family of my very, very sincere condolences on your loss. I cannot imagine.’
