Ellen died when car struck wall
A NEW ROSS woman died when the car her husband was driving struck a wall in a single vehicle accident, an inquest in Wexford was told.
Ellen Doran, aged 63 of Riverside, Waterford Road, New Ross was a front seat passenger in the car driven by her husband Paddy when it was involved in a collision at Harvey Place on Sunday April 19, 2014.
Garda Michelle Power went to the scene of the accident with Garda Karen Keogh shortly after 7 pm and found a black Skoda Octavia crashed into a wall. An off-duty fire officer Andrew Walsh was rendering assistance to Mrs. Doran and giving her CPR.
Mrs. Doran’s husband Paddy was holding onto the side of the car and appeared to be very intoxicated, according to Garda Power who went to assist Mr. Walsh in administering CPR to Mrs. Doran who was in an unresponsive condition and was pronounced dead a short time later by Dr. Katalin Cservai from the CareDoc service who was summoned to the scene.
Mr. Power was arrested on suspicion of drink driving.
Garda Power asked Dr. Csernai to examine Mr. Doran and it was decided that he should go to hospital to be checked out. Garda Power accompanied him in the ambulance. During the journey Mr. Doran admitted crashing the car.He said he had drank a few pints of Smithwicks.
At the hospital, he allowed a designated doctor to take a blood sample which subsequently showed a concentration of 287 mg of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.
Dr. Power said that due to the ordeal Mr. Doran had been through, she stayed with him to comfort him in his loss and arranged for relatives to come to the hospital to be with him.
Consultant pathologist Dr. Robert Landers who carried out a post-mortem examination at Waterford University Hospital said Mrs. Doran’s death was due to severe chest injuries consistent with involvement in a road traffic accident.
A verdict of accidental death was returned by the jury.
The Coroner Dr. Sean Nixon said the couple had been living in very poor social circumstances and it was a very tragic case.
He joined with Superintendent James Doyle and the jury foreman Dan Redmond in extending sincere sympathy to the family and friends of Mrs. Doran on their tragic loss.