The 7-year-old died after being struck by a car in April 2021
18:44, 11 May 2026Updated 18:46, 11 May 2026
Kaitlin McCoubrey-Fullerton
A driver involved in an accident that claimed the life of a seven-year-old girl in West Belfast five years ago told her family “I’m sorry you lost your beautiful child.”
Deirdre Crawford left home at 5.50pm on April 3, 2021, to bring a present to a work colleague’s house for their 30th birthday. She didn’t want to turn on Springhill Drive, so drove up Springhill Avenue to make a safer turn at the peace wall.
However, on her return down the road, Mrs Crawford’s car hit seven-year-old Kaitlin McCoubrey-Fullerton, who sadly died at the scene. An inquest into the young girl’s death is taking place this week at Belfast Laganside Court.
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Deirdre Crawford gave evidence to the inquest. Mrs Crawford explained how she went to the top of the street to turn as she “didn’t want to risk an accident.”
At this stage, she had been driving for two years and described herself as a “very careful driver… very conscious of my surroundings, and making sure to keep my hands at 10-2.”
Mrs Crawford had lived in the area for over 20 years as a child, with her home being on the current site of the playpark Kaitlin had been heading towards.
She was driving an automatic Renault Captur car, which had been recently serviced. As she was driving down Springhill Avenue, Deirdre said she and her daughters weren’t speaking in the car. There was no music playing, as her daughter’s phone was connected to the radio but its battery had died.
Mrs Crawford said: “I was very conscious of the parked cars… I was driving slowly.” She estimated her speed was around 12-13mph as she drove down the busy street, and said she was “definitely not” going 20mph, claiming she was driving at an “appropriate speed” at the time.
As she was driving, Mrs Crawford said she was looking straight ahead at the road, when she “saw a flash of red coming from the passenger’s side.” Her daughter, Shauna-Marie Crawford, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, shouted at her to “brake.”
“All I can remember is she came out… I didn’t see a child at all. My daughter screamed at me to brake and I did, but I didn’t understand why, I couldn’t see anything,” Mrs Crawford explained.
She said Kaitlin came out from between two parked cars at a speed ramp, with just seconds between seeing the “flash of red” and the collision taking place.
Mrs Crawford said she started to break immediately when her daugther shouted while she was on the speed ramp. She remained in her vehicle after the incident in a state of shock.
“I was numb, I couldn’t move from the car,” she added. “I couldn’t have done anything to avoid what happened, I’m just really sorry about what happened.”
Following the fatal crash, Mrs Crawford got rid of the Renault Captur car she had been driving. No prosecution was taken against her by the PSNI after the incident.
When asked if she believes there’s anything she could have done to avoid the accident, she said: “To be honest, I don’t, I really don’t.”
She added: “I wish I could have, and there would have been something to say, but I didn’t see her.
“I wish I could’ve stopped, but I didn’t see her. I’m sure the family hate us and I don’t blame them. My two daughters are my best friends and I don’t know what I would do without them.”
Addressing Kaitlin’s family in the court, Mrs Crawford added: “For a father to sit here today and hear this is just heartbreaking. I’ll say sorry, but I know it means nothing, and he’s not going to see his child grow up. He’s not going to see his child in her First Communion dress, or to see her get married or to see her first boyfriend, or to go to university. It’s terrible, it’s just awful.
“I want to say to the family that I’ve done nothing wrong, and I’m sorry you lost your beautiful child. I saw the family up at the garage collecting for the Air Ambulance and I saw a picture of her wee face, she looked like a cheeky wee girl, like somebody I would have got on really well with. It’s just so sad for everybody concerned.
“The irony is the McCoubrey family were actually very good friends of my family, and their great-granny was my mother’s best friend, and their uncle was and still is my brother’s best friend. It’s just heartbreaking.
“We were frightened to approach the family and I just want the family to know, when it did happen, I had said to the police we wanted to talk to them and they didn’t think it was appropriate. There’s not a day goes by I wouldn’t want to sit down with the family and tell them exactly what happened. They probably don’t want to hear it, but there’s nothing we can do.”
Her daughter, Shauna-Marie, told the inquest her mother performed a “textbook emergency stop.” She said after seeing Kaitlin run out from between parked cars, she tried to reach for the handbrake to stop the car “as quickly as possible.”
She added: “I think about Kaitlin every day, and her sisters and wee brother as well. There’s nothing we can say or do that’s going to help. We’re so sorry. There’s not a day that we don’t think about that wee angel.”
The inquest continues on Wednesday, May 13.
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