'Colin was full of energy': Family describes the moment two-year-old boy was killed in tragic crash as trial begins
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: The family and caretaker of a 2-year-old South Boston toddler named Colin Thomas McGrath who was killed by a car in 2018 testified on Tuesday at Suffolk Superior Court in an emotional manner at the trial of the driver accused of causing the incident, Charlene Casey. They described the deadly automobile crash and the moment they heard the boy had died.
There has been a lot of emotional testimony in court over the last week as witnesses recount the chain reaction automobile disaster. On a Wednesday afternoon in July 2018, McGrath, who had not yet reached the age of three but would have done so at the end of the month of August, died after being turned by an automobile on L Street in South Boston. According to the authorities, his nanny was pushing him along in a stroller when a chain reaction accident caused a van to go up on the curb and struck both the child and his 4-year-old sister.
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Evidence suggests that 67-year-old South Boston resident Charlene Casey failed to yield to a vehicle at the intersection of East Sixth Street and L Street. According to the police report, she made contact with the van, damaging the steering column and sending the vehicle careening down the sidewalk, where it subsequently crashed with Colin and his sister, who had been out for a stroll with their nanny Tracey Lewis. On Tuesday, the babysitter testified in court about the seconds before the collision. Kerri McGrath, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and the mother of the deceased toddler, also testified that she was at work when she learned of the tragedy and her spouse was away from home. “I grabbed all of my stuff and just left,” McGrath said, according to WHDH. “And I yelled to another doctor to go cover me.”
According to the television station, WHDH, Lewis told the jury that she and the children had stopped at Dunkin' Donuts on their way home from a nearby park. Lewis's testimony was accompanied by the sound of her sobbing. She noted that even as he was sitting in his pram, "Colin was full of energy." “He was telling me he’s not going to take a nap and I was telling him he was.” Lewis who suffered minor injuries said suddenly, in the wink of an eye, everything changed after colliding with Casey's automobile. Lewis related how she witnessed the vehicle careening toward her, hitting both Colin in his stroller and his sister.
Collin was found in critical condition on a South Boston street corner by William Clapp, a retired veteran of the Boston Emergency Medical Services. First responders rushed to get the kids to the hospital. During the time that emergency medical personnel and paramedics were transporting Colin to Boston Medical Center, Clapp and a coworker were trying their best to hold down his sister, who, according to the authorities, had suffered several fractures and a lacerated liver.
When Kerri got to Boston Medical Center, the medical staff were giving Colin CPR with care. McGrath told them that she knew they had done everything they could to save her son. "I said ‘just stop and let me hold him,’" she told the court.
To that end, Casey has been charged with vehicular murder for his role in the tragedy. The prosecution's main argument is that she should have spotted the vehicle at the junction and so was driving negligently.