Motorcyclist (67) was on lesiurely spin when he crashed - Inquest
SLIGO CORONER’S COURT HEARD HOW A BEAUTIFUL DRY SUNNY DAY ALMOST A YEAR AGO TO THE DAY TURNED TO TRAGEDY ON THE N15 FOR FORMER LEBANON VETERAN PATRICK ‘PACKIE’ MCGRATH
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A 67 year old retired army corporal died as a result of massive head trauma after his motorbike crashed into a car turning right as he was overtaking on a continuous white line at Cliffoney.
Sligo Coroner’s Court heard evidence on Monday that motorcyclist Patrick ‘Packie’ McGrath of St Benildus Avenue, Ballyshannon, had overtaken a lorry and a bus on his 95-Reg Red Honda 400cc and was on the wrong side of the road when he crashed into a car containing a mother and her three young children at Cloyspara, Grange on 27 th October 2017.
Mr. McGrath was travelling in the same direction northbound as the vehicle he crashed into.
Sgt Derek Butler read out Natalie Feeney’s deposition to Coroner Eamon McGowan and a jury of five men and two women at Sligo Courthouse.
The Montessori teacher told how she had picked up her 8-year-old daughter from school and had her 4-year-old twins in the back of her car at 3.30pm on 26 th October 2017.
She stopped off in Londis in Grange to buy something for the children’s Halloween party on that dry and sunny October afternoon.
She remembered driving past a CIE bus parked in Grange which her children were interested in.
Once she passed Island View Riding Stables, she began to slow down to prepare for her right hand turn into the side road which led to home.
She said she checked her mirrors and saw a black car behind her. She checked her mirrors again and when she believed it was safe to do so, began turning right.
Mrs Feeney was almost in the “mouth of the junction” when she heard a “loud bang” on her driver’s side.
“I did not lose control of the car,” she told investigating Gardaí in her deposition.
The airbags deployed, creating a lot of smoke and her children were crying in the back of the car. The witness said she was trapped in the driver’s seat and couldn’t get to her children who were very upset. A nearby resident, Mr Jamesie Loughlin came to help and was able to get her children out. Mrs Feeney had to be cut from her car and was taken to Sligo University Hospital along with her children who were uninjured.
Her children were discharged later the same day while the witness was discharged the next day, having sustained injuries. She said it was only then she was informed that a motorcyclist had collided with her car and had died.
Mrs Feeney was visibly upset in the witness box while her deposition was read out.
Sgt Terence McMahon read out a deposition from another witness, Mr Brian McCarthy, who was also driving along the N15 at Mount Temple that afternoon. He said a motorbike overtook him and a Heavy Goods Vehicle and then saw the bike and rider “thrown high into the air.”
He then saw the victim lying on the road verge and concluded he was dead. Lorry driver Martin Connolly was driving the HGV from Collooney to Ballybofey that day when he noticed a bus in front slowing down. His deposition, which was also read out, revealed he “noticed a motorbike overtake me over the white line.”
“I thought to myself ‘do you not see the car turning right?’,” he told Gardaí.
The CIE bus driver, David Dunleavy also had his deposi- tion read out in court.
He said driving conditions were good, the road was dry.
“I observed a car stopped in my lane, a people carrier. I started to slow down. Her right indicator was on. She was stopped on the white line.
“I could see a truck behind me. I saw the motorcyclist coming and over-taking. He was passing out the cars. The cars in front of me started to filter left. I had just gone past her when I heard a band and saw something big landing on the grass verge,” said the witness.
IT Sligo student Courtney McBride was sitting near the rear of the bus and told Gardaí she could hear the motorbike coming up the side of the bus over-taking it.
“Whenever he saw the car, it looked like he swerved to the right but he hit the car and went up in the air. It appeared he was going quite fast. I think he sped up to overtake the bus,” she said.
Garda Pat Gallagher of Grange Garda Station told the Coroner he was one of the first on the scene and said “there was no sign of life” from the deceased. Advanced paramedic Karl Dolan was the first paramedic to come on the crash and tended to the victim and to Mrs Feeney and her children.
“His injuries were incompatible with life,” he said.
The victim’s son, Shane McGrath identified his father’s body at Sligo Mortuary the next day, 27 th October 2017.
Garda Forensic Collision investigator Garda Hugh McCann examined the scene and concluded the victim was on the “incorrect side of the road” and had overtaken a bus and a lorry on a continuous white line.
“When he moved out first to
IT WOULDBE A SIN TO MISS OUT ON SUCH A LOVELY DAY-VICTIM’S LAST WORDS TO HIS WIFE
overtake it was a broken white line but 127m before the junction it turned to a continuous white line,” he said.
Sgt McCann said there was “insufficient evidence” to determine the speed of the motorbike but he was able to say the lorry was going at 85kph and the bus had slowed down to 64kph while it was filtering left of Mrs Feeney’s stationary car.
“It was obvious from the footage (both the lorry and the bus had dashcam and CCTV footage) that the motorbike was travelling faster than that,” he said.
He also said there was strong sunlight behind the cars as they drove north that afternoon.
He told Coroner McGowan that due to the strong low sun reflected in both rear view mirrors, it “may not have been possible to see if the car (Mrs Feeney’s) was indicating right.”
“It may not have been possible to see it from behind,” he told the court.
The Coroner then read out the report of pathologist Dr Paul Hartell.
There was nothing from a toxicology report on the de- ceased and he concluded the cause of death was “massive head trauma and multiple blunt force trauma injuries due to a road traffic accident.”
Earlier, the deceased’s widow, Mrs Christine McGrath, who was present in court along with several other relatives, had her deposition read out.
The last time she saw her husband of 43 years was at 1.50pm that day when he said he would go for a spin on his bike.
“It would be a sin to miss out on such a lovely day,” he told her. She said Packie, who married her in 1974, had been a Corporal in the Defence Forces and had served three missions in Lebanon. They had three children but lost their first child and had four grandchildren.
The first she knew of his death was when a squad car arrived at her house.
The jury retired to consider a verdict at 11.30am and returned at 11.40am.
They returned a verdict of accidental death due to a Road Traffic Collision. The Coroner, jury and emergency services expressed their sympathies to the McGrath family.