A three-year-old boy asphyxiated after an electric car window closed tightly on his neck as he played unaccompanied in his father's car, an inquest heard tonight.
The Dublin City Coroner's Court heard that the Romanian parents of Isac Cirpaci were distraught after his sister found him unconscious and trapped in the window of the Volkswagen Passet out the front of their home in Southbank, Swords, Co Dublin on April 5th, 2004.
The coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, pledged to write to the Department of Transport and relevant authorities to alert them to the boy's death in a bid to prevent further similar tragedies.
It emerged during the inquest that there was a fault with the 12-year-old car's lighting that interfered with the electric windows safety mechanism to stop their operation in instances when there was no key in the ignition.
However, in this instance Isac's father, Christian, who was accompanied by an interpreter, told the court that the young boy had taken the key without their knowledge and placed it in the ignition to play.
Dr Farrell, who passed a verdict of accidental death, said that, whether it was through the fault in the mechanism or the key in the ignition, Isac had been capable of moving the windows.
He said that he would write to the Transport Department to encourage them to highlight the potential dangers of the window system in the pre-2000 Volkswagen Passet cars to parents of young children.
The court heard that a small one-inch red mark was noted on Isac's neck as he was rushed to Temple Street Children's Hospital. However, despite resuscitation attempts he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at the hospital. Isac died from asphyxia due to pressure on the neck from a car window.