Man dies of suspected heart attack in charity cycle event

A DUBLIN man has died while taking part in a charity cycle event.

The 58-year-old married man was found lying on the roadside in Co Clare by other cyclists on Saturday afternoon. His wife was also understood to have taken part in the event.

It is believed he may have suffered a heart attack and gardaí are not treating the man’s death as suspicious.

The charity cyclists were travelling from Cork to Gort, Co Galway, where they were due to spend the night before continuing their journey yesterday.

However, tragedy struck shortly after 5pm as the cyclists were travelling along the R458, the old N18 Ennis to Galway road.

As they approached the Clare/Galway border, they noticed that one of their members wasn’t with the main group.

Some members of the group turned back and found the man lying in an unresponsive state on the side of the road about 2km north of Crusheen and 12km from their overnight stop in Gort.

The emergency services were alerted while an off-duty paramedic, who had been passing the scene at the time, stopped to help. Attempts to resuscitate the man continued until ambulance paramedics arrived.

Resuscitate

Two ambulances and an advanced paramedic rapid response vehicle attended the scene along with gardaí who immediately closed the road and diverted traffic away from the area.

Extensive efforts to resuscitate the man continued in the ambulance on the way to University Hospital Limerick. However, he was pronounced dead soon after his arrival at the hospital.

The circumstances of the incident weren’t immediately clear and it had been feared that it may have been a hit and run. However, gardaí later confirmed there was nothing to suggest there was any vehicle involved.

A section of the road was closed to facilitate a technical examination while a Garda spokesman confirmed that the death, while not suspicious, will be investigated. It’s believed the man may have suffered a heart attack or other medical episode and gardaí said a post-mortem examination would determine this.