10:30am Thursday 11th March 2010
By Andrew Bellard
THE death of an 11-year-old who slipped on ice as she made her way to school was a ‘tragic accident’, a coroner said.
Naeemah Achha, carrying her school bag in one hand and her lunch bag in the other, fell forward, making no attempt to break her fall, an inquest heard.
She suffered such severe head injuries that later the same day a neuro-surgeon declared them ‘non-survivable’.
Her mother witnessed the fall on the pavement outside St Michael and St John School, Swallow Drive, Blackburn.
In the aftermath of the incident there was anger in the community that the borough council was not gritting pavements.
But deputy assistant coroner Elaine Block described Naeemah’s death as a ‘tragic accident’.
Recording a verdict of accidental death, she said thousands of people had skidded and slipped their way to work and school that day.
“Naeemah fell in such a way that she didn’t just suffer bruises or even a broken bone,” said Mrs Block.
“She banged her head causing a catastrophic injury which meant she was already a very, very poorly child by the time she reached the Royal Blackburn Hospital.”
The inquest heard that Naeemah’s parents, Rafiq and Sayeeda, were too distressed to attend the hearing.
Mrs Achha’s statement was read to the inquest and in it she told how she had set off to walk to school on January 14 with Naeemah and her two sons, aged eight and six.
She said the roads and pavements were very icy and covered in hard-packed snow.
As they arrived at school Naeemah said they were late and she and one of her brothers went in through the office entrance.
Mrs Achha went to the main gate with her youngest child and, after seeing him into school, turned to see her other two children walking back up Swallow Drive towards the main gate. She then saw her daughter fall.
Other parents and staff were quickly on hand before Naeemah was taken by ambulance to Royal Blackburn Hospital. Following a scan she was transferred to Royal Manchester Children’s hospital where she died the following day.
In her statement Mrs Achha described Naeemah as ‘a very happy, helpful and intelligent girl who always had a smile on her face.’ After the hearing, the council’s Conservative regeneration chief Alan Cottam, who is responsible for the borough’s roads, said: “I would agree with the verdict. It was a tragic accident.
“It was very sad and it could have happened anywhere in the country.”
But community leader Hussain Akhtar, a former Labour councillor for the area, said: “The coroner knows more than I do but I am surprised.
"If the pavement had been gritted the result would have been different.”
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