A CORONER has described the death of a three-year-old boy as ‘a devastating tragedy of extreme proportions’.

Muhammad Bilal Ahmed was killed in a collision with a car after he followed his mother into the street, an inquest heard. Bilal, from Great Lever, died after he was hit by a black Renault Clio when he attempted to cross the road near his aunt’s house in Morris Green.

Area coroner Alan Walsh added: “As a parent it’s unimaginable that your child, a little boy of three, could die in these circumstances.”

The inquest heard that Bilal, his mother Jawaira Aslam and his baby brother were visiting Mrs Aslam’s sister Yasfa at her home in Ellesmere Road, having driven there from the family home in Rishton Lane.

Mrs Aslam parked in Asher Street, across the road from her sister’s home, and took Bilal inside, leaving him to play with his cousins before heading back to her car to collect her baby son and some food.

But, unbeknown to Mrs Aslam, Bilal had managed to open the front door of her sister’s house and followed his mother across the road.

Bilal then turned to go back across Ellesmere Road, close to the junction with Asher Street, and attempted to cross the road but was struck by the car.

Bilal was taken to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The cause of death on September 15 last year was given as multiple injuries.

Mrs Aslam said she had no idea that Bilal had followed her out as she was preoccupied with attempting to get her 10-month-old baby and the food out of the car.

But she did hear her sister, who rushed out of the front door after seeing Bilal on the street from a bedroom window.

Mrs Aslam said: “When I went to the car I was trying to get my baby out of the car seat. I could hear some background noise but I didn’t know what it was. But then I remember hearing someone call ‘Bilal’ from the house.

“I just thought he was doing something silly so I didn’t think anything of it. The next thing I know, I hear my name, hear Bilal’s name so I turned around thinking he had just run off.

“She was pointing and then I looked down.”

Bilal’s aunt said she hadn’t seen or heard Bilal leave the house and was only aware when she looked out of the front bedroom window.

She then ran down the stairs and out of the front door where she saw Bilal in a crouching position, looking to his left before she saw the car go past.

Mrs Yasfa Aslam said: “I can still remember the feeling of my foot hitting the door frame. I just froze. I thought the car had missed him.”

The driver of the Renault Clio, Benjamin Brown and his fiancé Chelsea Hayman, who was the passenger, stopped at the scene and helped police with inquiries.

In his evidence, Mr Brown said he could not see any pedestrians and did not see Bilal until he heard noises on the car and looked in his rear view mirror.

A police investigation concluded that Mr Brown was going at around 21mph when the collision took place, less than the 30mph speed limit at the time. The road’s limit has since been reduced to 20mph.

PC David Poole, collision reconstruction officer at Greater Manchester Police, said that because of parked cars obstructing his view and the height of Bilal, there was no way Mr Brown could have seen the youngster or reacted in time.

He calculated that, depending on whether Bilal ran or walked into the road, it would have been between 0.72 and 2.89 seconds from the time Bilal left the pavement to the impact with the car.

Mr Walsh said: “Bilal’s death was a devastating tragedy of extreme proportions.I have a picture of him being a very loving and very normal three-year-old little boy. He had a playful and sometimes mischievous manner for which he will be sadly missed.

“In his short life he touched his family immensely and I’m in no doubt that his family will remember him even if their time with him was short.”

Tributes to Muhammad Bilal Ahmed killed in tragic accident 

Mr Walsh concluded that Bilal died from multiple injuries sustained in a road traffic collision.