A SCHOOLBOY left fighting for his life after he was struck by a car on the outskirts of east Belfast is making a steady recovery.
Robbie Shaw (12) from Belfast was hit by the vehicle on the Ballygowan Road, close to Roselawn cemetery last Wednesday.
But his football club, Bangor FC Youth Academy, said the boy's condition had improved.
Hundreds of messages of support have flooded in for the talented footballer with his club posting regular updates on his condition on social media.
"Yesterday the hospital took Robbie off all his meds (apart from a little morphine) to see how his body would react." it said.
"The good news was that he began to get cranky and uncomfortable, which means that he was reacting in exactly the way he should have been.
"He was then made comfortable again and the meds upped to settle him back down.
"His ventilator was turned right down and he began taking more unassisted breaths on his own and generally the picture seems to be that he is reacting to stimuli and changes in the way he is expected to.
"Very slowly he is beginning to get back to being more himself."
The club also said Robbie's family have been advised by nursing staff "to prepare for having to spend Christmas in hospital while the waiting game continues, but things continue to keep moving in the right direction".
It is believed Robbie, a pupil at the Royal Belfast Academical Institute, had just got off a bus on his way home from school when the collision happened.
The Department of Regional Development said they had previously received a request to reduce the speed limit along the route where the crash happened, but it "did not meet the criteria for a 30mph speed limit".
Meanwhile, a man and woman remain in critical conditions after separate road crashes at the weekend.
An 18-year-old man was injured in a two-car collision on Friday on the Burren Road outside Warrenpoint.
Police are continuing to appeal for a passenger in the man's BMW vehicle to come forward after "making off from the scene across nearby fields whilst the driver of the car remained trapped in the vehicle".
A 19-year-old woman is also still critically ill after a car collided with a telegraph pole on the Ballybogey Road in Ballymoney on Saturday.
Three men and a woman also in the vehicle were treated in hospital for their injuries.
A 22-year-old man, arrested on suspicion of a number of motoring offences, was later released on police bail pending further enquiries.
In Armagh, a woman was taken to hospital following a single car crash on the Keady Road, but later released.
In a separate collision on Sunday night, a female pedestrian was treated in hospital for minor injuries after she was struck by a car on the Lisburn Road in south Belfast.
