Ghost estate claims first victim

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0223/ballinasloe.html

A two-year-old boy has died after an accident on an unfinished housing estate outside Athlone.

A two-year-old boy has died after an accident on an unfinished housing estate outside Athlone, Co Westmeath.

Gardaí say the toddler went missing shortly after 12pm.

It is understood his body was discovered in a small pool of water beside a drain area in the Glenatore development.

Those sites are dangerous and it was only a matter of time before someone got killed!

charlemont

Lousy on the poor kid, His family will no doubt be devastated and I hope someone is held accountable for this.

Freddie59

Deleted User wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0223/ballinasloe.html



Those sites are dangerous and it was only a matter of time before someone got killed!

Yep. Sadly, it takes something like this for action to be taken. Probably will only cost a few quid compared to the billions we're in hock for those banking cnuts.

Zebra3

I doubt any developers or FF scum who helped cause all this crap will bat an eyelid about it all. :rolleyes:

Run_to_da_hills

R.I.P little one and condolences to his family.

kirving

Only took three replies for Fianna Fail to be blamed.

Horrible thing to happen, however.

Mat the trasher

dolanbaker wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0223/ballinasloe.html

A two-year-old boy has died after an accident on an unfinished housing estate outside Athlone.

A two-year-old boy has died after an accident on an unfinished housing estate outside Athlone, Co Westmeath.

Gardaí say the toddler went missing shortly after 12pm.

It is understood his body was discovered in a small pool of water beside a drain area in the Glenatore development.

Those sites are dangerous and it was only a matter of time before someone got killed!

Jumping the gun alittle bit on the cause of death aren't we?

donalg1

Poor kid.

Could happen on any estate though in fairness.

tennisball

Tragic and unnecessary waste of a young life...sympathy to the family.

Caveman1

I can only imagine how the family are feeling now rip

Fishooks12

Probably be lynched for saying this but why was a 2 year old left unsupervised on a building site

RIP, tragic

amacachi

Fishooks12 wrote: »

Probably be lynched for saying this but why was a 2 year old left unsupervised on a building site

Wondering myself how the body was "discovered", how long had passed?

Terrible for the family, but the Ghost estate can hardly be blamed. The poor child could have died in any puddle of water.

Zebra3

Zebra3 wrote: »

I doubt any developers or FF scum who helped cause all this crap will bat an eyelid about it all. :rolleyes:

Why would they? where they babysitting the child?

stovelid

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Only took three replies for Fianna Fail to be blamed..

Should have been under three.

JONJO THE MISER

Fishooks12 wrote: »

Probably be lynched for saying this but why was a 2 year old left unsupervised on a building site

I wont speculate on this case but i have seen toddlers and small kids walking around on there own up a lane full of apartments next to a busy main street, its plain crazy where the hell are the parents, i saw one of them nearly get killed by a car one day.

Fishooks12

Fishooks12 wrote: »

Probably be lynched for saying this but why was a 2 year old left unsupervised on a building site

Have you ever had children, they sneak out!

Fishooks12

Zebra3 wrote: »

I doubt any developers or FF scum who helped cause all this crap will bat an eyelid about it all. :rolleyes:

what does that even mean?

Some people seem to love lumping in an aul FF reference in for some thanks whoring

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Have you ever had children, they sneak out!

I see what your saying, but most two year olds couldnt reach up to open a front or back door. So someone must have left a door open for the child to have gotten out.

If the child had been killed on the road, would the car and driver be blamed?

stovelid

Kid may have sneaked away or anything. Who knows. Let's not go down the usual road of blame when we don't know. Parents are not superhuman and can make mistakes.

Plus terrible accidents can happen on any kind of estate, not just unfinished ones.

amacachi

stovelid wrote: »

Kid may have sneaked away or anything. Who knows. Let's not go down the usual road of blame when we don't know. Parents are not superhuman and can make mistakes.

Aye, let's blame whoever it was that left the ground in such a shape that a puddle could form first.

Run_to_da_hills

One of the first initiatives of this new government back to work schemes for the long term unemployed should be to sort out and tidy up these ghost estates whether to finish them off or demolish them altogether.

Fishooks12

amacachi wrote: »

Aye, let's blame whoever it was that left the ground in such a shape that a puddle could form first.

No no, let's blame Bertie and FF, without them the country would have no building sites.

Scum, hope they all rot etc...

snubbleste

How many non-ghost housing estates claim children each year?

amacachi

Fishooks12 wrote: »

No no, let's blame Bertie and FF, without them the country would have no building sites.

Scum, hope they all rot etc...

Nah, you need to go deeper. I blame Isaac Newton for inventing gravity, the puddle wouldn't have existed but for that.

Jake1

Jake1 wrote: »

I see what your saying, but most two year olds couldnt reach up to open a front or back door. So someone must have left a door open for the child to have gotten out.

If the child had been killed on the road, would the car and driver be blamed?

Probably not, but in this case, It's an unfinished estate full of hazards and a decaying safety fence.

If the council had left a dangerous hole in the road and it caused an accident, they would be liable, the fact that the driver was (possibly) being careless (by not swerving round it) is beside the point.

Fishooks12

snubbleste wrote: »

How many non-ghost housing estates claim children each year?

Speculating, but I'm guessing even more considering non ghost house estates would have occupied houses as well as ones in construction

biko

Just a tragic accident imo. At least until I have more info.

RIP little one.

bbam

Deleted User wrote: »

Have you ever had children, they sneak out!

I have children and two year olds don't "sneak out".. Poor security or a momentary loss in concentration lets them out...

This poor family must be going through a living hell, one I don't even want to imagine..

stovelid

Jake1 wrote: »

So someone must have left a door open for the child to have gotten out.

I doubt anybody here can claim to never had made a mistake. And for people whose mistakes have such a statistically remote and catastrophic outcome, the blame game is just another terrible cross for them to bear.

Nobody knows what happened.

stovelid

stovelid wrote: »

I doubt anybody here can claim to never had made a mistake. And for people whose mistakes have such a statistically remote and catastrophic outcome, the blame game is just another terrible cross for them to bear.

Nobody knows what happened.

I agree with you, thats why I think its silly to blame a Ghost Estate for claiming a childs life.
As you said, nobody knows what happened, except the child is dead, poor thing.

hairyprincess

Rest in peace little angel

PrincessLola

People always complain about childhood obesity and coddling parents keeping their children indoors, not letting them roam free like in the old days, and then a tragic accident happens and the very same people complain 'where were the parents??'

I know the poor boy was only 2 but if he'd been 7/8/9 ect people would still be blaming the parents.

They aren't superheros and tragic accidents do happen.

R.I.P

TheMilkyPirate

My son just turned two last week, And he has been able to open our front door and my mothers one since he was 18 months old. We lock it obviously but you never know when you might forget. Trust me you look away for one second and there gone, I've ran out after him so many times after he just bolted.

Even thinking about that being him, It's horrible.. Feel so sorry for the family. I don't know what i would do. That would really break me.

Tim the Enchanter

I think its disgraceful that the parents are being questioned here. We dont know what happened. Poor kid. Rip

baraca

baraca wrote: »

My son just turned two last week, And he has been able to open our front door and my mothers one since he was 18 months old. We lock it obviously but you never know when you might forget. Trust me you look away for one second and there gone, I've ran out after him so many times after he just bolted.

Even thinking about that being him, It's horrible.. Feel so sorry for the family. I don't know what i would do. That would really break me.

yeah, I think it would break most of us. Couldnt imagine such a loss.

donalg1

dolanbaker wrote: »

Fishooks12 wrote: »

Probably be lynched for saying this but why was a 2 year old left unsupervised on a building site

Have you ever had children, they sneak out!

The "you wouldn't know until you have had kids" line didn't take long to appear

Sunnyisland

Tragic accident, RIP little child.

nlgbbbblth

Lot of point-scoring on this thread.

RIP to the little lad and sympathies to his family.

sh1tstirrer

amacachi wrote: »

Fishooks12 wrote: »

No no, let's blame Bertie and FF, without them the country would have no building sites.

Scum, hope they all rot etc...

Nah, you need to go deeper. I blame Isaac Newton for inventing gravity, the puddle wouldn't have existed but for that.

Your joke sounds good except Newton didn't invent gravity.

_feedback_

That is terribly sad. The poor parents will go over this afternoon in their head for a long long time. RIP.

Mistake distracted for two mins whoever was minding that poor mite is paying the highest price for it.

Anyone who has ever minded kids their own or others and can say they watched them at all times is either a liar or a gob****e.

It takes only minutes for a child to drown in water .

my condolences to the childs family .

Biggins

Terribly sad for the family. They have my condolences.

Certainly there needs to be questions asked later as regards certain matters, but its not the time or the place right now (for me anyway) to start apportioning blame etc.
We know very little of the circumstances presently so maybe we would be better not all rushing to judgement till we learn more facts?

Heartbreaking.
RIP little child.

padi89

hairyprincess wrote: »

Rest in peace little angel

Was it yours or someone you know?

Sweetpea101

The poor little mite - RIP

But about them sneaking out - it's not so much sneaking, as it is figuring our what they can do - my now four year old, when he was two, got a hold of my keys, about ten or fifteen on the bunch, he found the key to the hall door, unlocked and opened it, bringing him into the porch, found the key to the front door, unlocked and opened it, bringing him into the garden, and when I heard the noises from outside I went running, and he was climbing into the car that he had also unlocked!!!! They do get out without anyone being irresponsible, you just don't think they can do until they do!!!

phasers

Poor little thing, RIP.

How this can be blamed on a ghost estate is beyond me though, my estate has been finished for years and big puddles still form around drains.

Tbh this is down to negligence. Two year olds can open doors easily, especially those stupid front doors with handles which all those new houses have. My nephew tried to make a break for it recently, and toddlers are like escape artists when they want to be. They need constant supervision.

monkeysnapper

Sweetpea101 wrote: »

The poor little mite - RIP

But about them sneaking out - it's not so much sneaking, as it is figuring our what they can do - my now four year old, when he was two, got a hold of my keys, about ten or fifteen on the bunch, he found the key to the hall door, unlocked and opened it, bringing him into the porch, found the key to the front door, unlocked and opened it, bringing him into the garden, and when I heard the noises from outside I went running, and he was climbing into the car that he had also unlocked!!!! They do get out without anyone being irresponsible, you just don't think they can do until they do!!!

JEEEZ you have a smart child there.

but just saying i have a 2 year old and we are very carefull, we have the gates, outside gates and locks on them because she has worked out how to open that, as carefull as you can be there is always times they do something outside your barriers you put in their way to keep them safe, 99 times out of a hundred they come to no harm and you can count yourself lucky and have a laugh with your friends over a coffee next day on how cute they are, then there is the 1 time out of a hundred when something terrible happens,

my heart goes out to that poor family, rip

The Waltzing Consumer

snubbleste wrote: »

How many non-ghost housing estates claim children each year?

Pffftt, shows what you know. Everyone knows puddles do not form in non-ghost housing estates.

Based on the insane logic of some posters here, puddles only form when FF, developers and Met Eireann get together and cause havoc.

KKkitty

Ghost estate or not, FF or not, the parents or whoever was supervising or not is all inconsequential right now. A 2 year old child is dead and is never coming back to its loved ones. No one deserves what this child got or what his or her family is going through and will never get over for the rest of their days. Even if our ghost estates are finished or demolished it may save lives but never bring back this poor little child. R.I.P. little one

lastlaugh

Very sad story and an horrific thing for the family to endure.

Questions have to be raised about the child's supervision though.

Midnight Sundance

Kids can escape very easily unknown to anyone.
A few years ago I thought my eyes were playing tricks when I saw a baby no more than one or one n a half sitting on side of a busy road. I jammed on breaks and looked to find parents, picked child up n brought it into the house which turned out to be neighbours.
In the meantime a frantic dad n baby's sister were searching next door. I was shaking for ages after thinking how that child could have been killed , the dad reckons he turned his back for a minute and didn't expect child to be outside so was searching all through the house so perhaps this could be the case here.
No matter the circumstances , that family are without a son, god love them! May the little mite rest in peace!!!