Jax Aylward, the baby whose death has inspired the Jax’s law Bill, died by blunt-force trauma, his inquest has found.
Jax was a baby boy who died at 31 weeks of pregnancy after his mother, Saoirse Aylward, was the victim of a three-car collision caused by dangerous driving.
Aylward said her son was a “real, wanted and loved baby, and his death changed our family forever”, in a statement read at the inquest.
The crash took place in January 2024 on the main Rosslare to Wexford road. Aylward had been travelling in a car with her partner Nathan Ferguson Murphy when a van crashed into another car and forced it into their path.
The van had been driven by a Ukrainian man, Yurii Dudek, who in February was sentenced to six months in jail for careless driving causing serious bodily harm.
Gardaí had initially told Aylward they had recommended the driver face a charge for harm to her and a separate charge for the harm to Jax, but the Director of Public Prosecutions later clarified there was no existing law to recognise an unborn baby.
Aylward said “one of the hardest things” was that her baby son’s death was not officially recognised as a road traffic death. The Wexford woman spearheaded a campaign for greater recognition of unborn babies who die in such incidents.
A Bill with cross-party support was submitted to the Dáil in March to recognise in law for the first time a baby in the womb over 23 weeks that is lost as a result of careless or dangerous driving. It is due to be discussed “very shortly”, the inquest heard.
The inquest into Jax’s death at Wexford Coroner’s Court in Gorey made an accidental death finding on Friday.
Coroner Fiona Reynolds conveyed the results of the postmortem examination which concluded the baby died by a combination of blunt-force trauma and the rupturing of the placenta.
Some bruising was also present on the baby’s body, which was found to be otherwise healthy with no foetal abnormalities.
The inquest heard that following the crash, Aylward was brought straight to the labour ward of Wexford General Hospital for an emergency Caesarean section.
Upon delivery, the baby did not begin breathing himself and CPR was administered, but was unsuccessful and the baby the pronounced dead.
“I never wanted Jax to become a campaign. I wanted my son. But if I have to use my voice to make sure that what happened to Jax does not happen to another family without recognition, then I will continue to do that,” Aylward’s statement stated.
“Jax mattered. His life mattered. His death mattered. And I want the record to show that he was here, that he was loved and that he was a victim of a road traffic collision.”
She reiterated her desire for every unborn baby who dies as a result of a road traffic collision to be recorded in official data.
“If unborn babies who die in collisions are not recorded, then we cannot know the true human cost of road traffic collisions in Ireland,” she added.