Dad of 10 killed as he cleared dead horse from unlit road
Coroner issues safety warning after father loses life in smash
A FATHER of 10 was killed as he tried to remove a dead horse from an unlit rural road, an inquest heard yesterday.
Joseph Cleary, 45, died instantly when he was hit by 17-year-old Jason Fallon’s car in Co Mayo on December 16, 2015. In a statement to Castlebar Coroner’s Court, Mr Fallon told the inquest he was driving two friends to Ballyhaunis in his mother’s Volkswagen Passat. The court heard it was misty and dark and the N83 Ballyhaunis to Cloonfad Road was damp and greasy. The witness, from Rockfort, Irishtown, Claremorris, said they were passing a stationary truck with its indicators on when there was a bang and their windscreen was broken. He added they didn’t know what they had hit but got out of the car and found a man lying unresponsive on the ground. John Gallagher, from Bushfield, Kiltimagh, a driver for Mulvaney’s Dead Animal Collection Services of Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, said Mr Cleary rang him around 7.30pm to collect a horse which had been killed on the road. He added Mr Cleary, from Ballyhaunis, stayed in the cab as he didn’t want to see the horse being loaded into the lorry. He told the court he was winching the animal into the trailer when he was approached by two men who showed him a man lying on the road. Mr Gallagher said that was the first he knew there had been an accident. Questioned by Eoin Garavan, counsel for the Cleary family, Mr Gallagher admitted he could give no reason why Mr Cleary was on the road. After the jury returned a verdict of accidental death, Coroner Patrick O’connor expressed his deepest sympathy with the Cleary family. He said winter was approaching and the manner of the tragedy highlighted the need for all road users to wear high-vis clothing on dark evenings and nights.