Cousins see six-year-old holidaymaker killed by car

Published on Tuesday 19 July 2011 21:07

THE cousins of a youngster who died after being struck by a car were being comforted by their family today after witnessing his death.

The six-year-old boy died almost instantly after being hit by a Vauxhall Corsa outside the Seton Sands Holiday Village where he had been on holiday.

The child, named locally as Liam McDonald, from Glasgow, was picking up a playing card in the road when he was run down around 1.30pm yesterday.

Liam was with his young cousins, believed to be around the same age, who witnessed the accident.

Holidaymakers rushed to the scene, at a set of traffic lights outside the gates of the park, and attempted to resuscitate the youngster.

William Millar, 46, from Inverness, was one of the first on the scene. He said: "I looked out and then saw the wee kid lying there so I ran over and tried to do what I could to resuscitate him.

"One woman was doing compressions and I was doing the breaths but it was no good, he was already gone."

Eyewitness Joan Watson, who has recently bought a home on the caravan park, said an ambulance crew arrived soon after, as did the boy's grandmother.

She said: "We could see the ambulance men attending to the young lad.

"The gran was clearly hysterical. The wee boy's shoes were off (as a result of being struck].

"It was so upsetting."

The elderly male driver stopped immediately after the accident and is helping the police with the investigation.

Around 5pm yesterday Liam's family tied a cuddly toy to the railings at the crossing where the accident took place.

A relative, thought to be Liam's father, returned at 7pm in a state of distress and sat down for some time alongside where the tribute had been laid.

A spokesman for Seton Sands said staff and guests had been left upset by the accident and that the resort would help the family in any way they could. He added: "This is a terrible, terrible tragedy and has greatly affected all guests and staff. We are now doing everything we can to assist the family."

Inspector David Milne, from the Road Policing Unit said: "It is tragic that a six-year-old boy has been knocked down and killed on the road directly outside Seton Sands caravan park.

"We understand that the young boy was trying to retrieve an item from the road at the time he was struck by a Vauxhall Corsa that was travelling towards Port Seton.

"The driver stopped at the scene and is being interviewed.The six-year-old victim was on holiday at the caravan park and was from the Glasgow area."

Inspector Milne added that officers would like to speak to the driver of a white van who may have witnessed the accident as they drove in the opposite direction from Port Seton to Longniddry.

He said: "We have a number of people who witnessed the collision. Investigators will try and reconstruct exactly what happened."