A toddler who managed to open the front door of hi

A toddler who managed to open the front door of his
family’s Eltham home died moments later after running into the
path of a car.

Tragedy struck on April 18 this year when three-and-a-half
-years-old Sharieff Alam dragged a chair to the door.

Once outside he tottered off, Southwark Coroners Court
heard.

But within yards of his Westmount Road home little
Sharieff darted out from behind a parked car straight into a
passing vehicle on March 9.

Motorist Terrence Davis didn’t stand a chance.

His Ford
Cortina was almost level with the parked car when the little boy
ran out, witnesses told the court.

‘The time the child came from behind the car, the other
car was on him.

The car was not travelling fast, but it could
not have avoided hitting the child,’ said witness Mr David
McGill from Blackfen.

His wife, Jacqueline, spoke of Sharieff having ‘zoomed’
out.

‘The car was dead level as he came out.

There was no way
he the driver could have stopped,’ she explained.

Local man Mr Davis, his voice filled with emotion,
described how he had been driving along between 25 and 30 mph on
his way to work in Greenwich.

‘All of a sudden there was the top of a little head and a
thud.

I hit the brakes and tried to steer away.

‘
Asked if there had been any time when he saw the child
before the collision, Mr Davis said: ‘No, at no time.

‘
Then demonstrating by snapping his finger he added: ‘It
was just like that.

I hit the child then braked.

‘
The child’s father, Mr Mohammed Jahange Alam, broke down
sobbing as he gave evidence.

He said that his son had opened the door by pulling his
plastic chair up against it in the past but had never ventured
outside.

Restaurateur Mr Alam said the boy had asked to go
with him that morning when he left for work.

‘I had lots of things to do and that made him upset.

‘
Mr Alam’s wife was too distressed to attend court.

The
couple have a six months old baby daughter.

Accident investigator PC robert Hawthorne told the
court that there were no defects on Mr Davis’s car.

Using scientifically based estimates and measurements the
officer said that the driver would have had ‘less than one second’
to stop when Sharieff appeared in front of him.

‘It would have been totally impossible for him to pull up
in that distance,’ added the officer.

Sharieff who suffered head injuries would have been
rendered unconscious instantly and would have been free of any
pain, said pathologist Dr Michael Heath.

He died on March 10 this year just after midnight.

Recording a verdict of accidental death Coroner Sir
Montague Levine said: ‘What a terrible tragedy this is.

Children
do pick up things that surprise all of us.

Sharieff had
obviously seen adults open the lock and had done it before.

‘Sadly on this day he went out.

We shall never know why
he crossed the road, but children of three know no fear.

It may
have been a little game going across the road, a little bit
adventure.

‘How could the driver have conceivably stopped?’
The coroner told the parents that they should have no
‘conscience’ about something they could not ‘possibly conceive’
would happen.

He extended his sympathy to the child’s family and to
motorist Mr Davis.

Cause of death was head injury.

ENDS