‘No prescription can heal a broken heart’

When council worker Padraig Noone (62) left for work on Friday, August 13th 2015, he told his wife that he would cut the back lawn when he came home that evening.

It was the last time, Mrs Colette Noone saw her husband smile. When he came home it was not in his Peugeot van but in a hearse, she recalled in a moving Victim Impact Statement read to the sentencing hearing by her daughter, Elaine, at Sligo Circuit Court last Tuesday of lorry driver, Vlastimil Zachar.

Mrs Noone said the death of her husband in the fatal accident on the N4 whilst working for the council brought an abrupt end to her career of 38 years at Sligo University Hospital as she could not cope mentally with returning to the same place where she had received the tragic news which had changed her life and that of her family forever.

“I have been traumatised from losing Padraig under such tragic circumstances. This has lead to a spiralling downturn in my mental and physical health, and in turn, has resulted in many medical consultant and GP visits. Sadly, no prescription can ever heal a broken heart,” she said. Her husband did all the work outside the house. He was a very hard worker since the age of 14. Two weeks prior to his death they had spoken about how much he was looking forward to retiring.

“He talked about spending time on our farm which he had a great passion for, for us being able to go and visit his family on the east coast, in London and New Zealand. We were looking forward to no longer having to worry about watching the clock which we spent our lives doing.”

She described her husband as kind, caring and compassionate and was her best friend since they had met when she was 20 and he was 24. For 38 years he was always at her side. She now had no one to discuss problems with, to talk to.

They had gone to many weddings, went for many meals and for a spin on a Sunday. She no longer went to weddings as she didn’t feel comfortable socialising or going on nights out. “I never had to go on my own, it’s alien to me and something I will never get used to,” she said. Family was always Padraig’s main priority in life. Not a day went by that he didn’t ring on his break to see how she was.

“He shared everything in life with us as a family, his money, his advice, his worries and happiness. For me now, the silence is deafening, the lonliness is incomprehenisible, living on my own.” Their daughter Elaine was married in 2017 but the occasion was tarnished with sadness and tears.

Every day she visited Padraig’s grave and the monument the family had erected in the place where he lost his life. “As I stand on the road, in the grass verge for my own safety, I feel nervous and anxious when I see oncoming lorries. As I hear them approaching, I am always so fearful that I too may be struck by an coming vehicle just like Padraig was.”

Elaine Kelly in her victim impact statement said she returned to work a few weeks after her father’s death and she found this tough as she worked with the National Ambulance Service. “I deal with trauma and grief daily but it’s always other people’s grief. In the months following the collision I had to make numerous trips to Dublin for work.

“I am filled with sadness every time I pass daddy’s monument on the roadside. I am still afraid driving alongside lorries and large vehicles. I always feel like they are going to cross over into my carriageway and that I will be crushed. It’s a fear I have to live with,” she said.

On the morning of her wedding on October 27 th, 2017 she visited her father’s roadside monument. “It was the hardest walk of my life to walk up the aisle of the church and not have daddy by my side.”

Linda Noone recalled how on the morning of the accident she noticed a missed call from her father. She returned the call but there was no answer. She said she wished she had been in her office to answer the phone she left behind there. “I am haunted by the fact that I could have spoken to him one last time but I didn’t have the opportunity.”

She recalled how she had to make the heartbreaking decision to sell her father’s cows and later lease the land. It had always been her father’s intention for her to take over the running of the family farm but she could no longer do so mentally or physically.

Her father was her best friend and each day was now a struggle. She was devastated that her father will not be there to walk her down the aisle on her wedding day or ever get to meet her future family.

“The torture of knowing that these joyous occasions people always look forward to, will be covered in s shroud of doom and sadness due to our loss is heartbreaking,” said Ms Noone.

Council worker, Anthony Feighney who was with the late Mr Noone when he was killed, said he felt his life was at a crossroads with all roads looking dark. He was seriously injured in the crash and said he did not have the same interest in life as before. He used to love farming as a hobby but now he is forced to “stand on the sidelines and watch my sons carry out the work.”

Damien Davey, who was also seriously injured in the collison said in his victim impact statement read to the court that he had been wheelchair bound for months afterwards and had to rely on his wife for everything. “My physical injuries were very severe and my body ached but my mental health also suffered badly. I could not sleep at night. I kept having nightmares. I began to be afraid of the dark. .” He said he had been an ongoing independent person but then became a burden and relied constantly on others. He could not drive for two years. He fears falling over due to the weakness in his legs.