Two-year-old killed in low speed collision in Wirral

Nov 4 2009 by Matt Hurst, Birkenhead News

A TWO-YEAR-OLD girl died after being hit by a car in a low-speed collision, an inquest heard.

Bethany Wood was out playing on June 30 last year when she was struck by a Citroen Saxo.

The tragedy happened in Wilkes Avenue, Leasowe, as driver Lisa Berry returned from a shopping trip with her friend, her partner and her daughter, at around 2.20pm that afternoon.

In a statement given by Miss Berry, and read by coroner’s officer Donald Johnston, an inquest at Wallasey Town Hall heard: “I started screaming and took my hands off the wheel and my feet off the pedals.

“I didn’t know what I would have done if I could have done anything, I just started screaming.”

The front of the Saxo struck Bethany at around 10mph, and she was pulled under the car, before it rolled up a kerb and onto the grass verge.

The little girl, who would have been three a fortnight later, was left lying on the road behind the car.

Miss Berry’s partner, Malcolm Mawdsley, said in his statement: “I realised there was someone on the road and then I saw a very young girl lying on the road and behind the car.”