The Coroner for West Galway has urged cyclists to use helmets at all times, following the inquiry into the death of a father of two, who would probably have survived an accident if he had taken this safety precaution.
Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin made his remarks at Galway Courthouse after a lengthy inquiry into the death of Kevin Smith (43), from Ballyvaughan, Co Clare. He was struck by a car outside Kinvara last summer, sustaining fatal head injuries.
“This is possible,” was the reply from consultant pathologist, Dr Birgid Tietz, when asked if Mr Smith’s would have survived had he been wearing a helmet.
“Most fatalities are around injuries to the head and neck,” the Coroner added.
Mr Smith had been in the area on August 6, as he was constructing a porch for friends in Kilcolgan. He had cycled from home the previous day, the Inquest heard, and decided to stay overnight as it was a two-hour journey by bike. They shared two bottles of wine with dinner, before he went to bed at about 11pm.
His friend told the inquiry that he set up his work space on the morning of August 6, but left the house without explanation at 10am.
She said that he would often go for a swim, and had possibly gone out to revive himself, as he had been feeling tired and recalled him saying that he “felt like he’d been hit by a truck.”
A driver encountered him near Dunguaire Castle, outside Kinvara, at about 1.30pm, and said that as he approached, the cyclist swerved without explanation across the road in front of him. The accident occurred about one mile further along that road, on the way to Ballindereen.
Another driver remembered seeing Mr Smith around that time. She was parked in a layby, but recalled him cycling past her and then crossing the road, seconds before he was struck.
The driver of the oncoming vehicle said that the cyclist ‘shot out’ into her path from behind bushes. A witness, who was a passenger in an oncoming car, told her that there was nothing she could have done.
“It was literally the blink-of-an-eye stuff,” the driver recalled.
She also said that Mr Smith’s fiancée, Danielle Dodds, had approached her at the scene, saying: “You look after yourself, this is part of a bigger picture.”
A witness driving in the opposite direction told the inquiry that the traffic had slowed down to get past Mr Smith, who was cycling alongside a female pedestrian with a dog – incidentally, Gardaí were unable to get a statement from this woman.
“The guy on the bike seemed to be swerving in and out on the road… the pedestrian stayed on the left, he cycled across the road, he was cycling erratically,” she said.
“I was glad that there were other cars in front of me, I wouldn’t have liked to come up on that cyclist at any speed. You don’t do stuff like that on a busy road, especially at the height of the tourist season.”
Mr Smith was airlifted to University Hospital Galway, where he died two days later, on the evening of August 8. He had been kept alive so that his heart, liver, and kidneys could be donated.
Garda Tom Kavanagh, who attended the scene of the accident, told the inquiry that despite making numerous enquiries, he had been unable to trace Mr Smith’s movements between 10am and the time of the accident.
“Several business premises were visited in Kinvara, but we were unable to establish where he was,” he said.
Dr Tietz carried out a post-mortem examination on Mr Smith’s remains, and found that he had sustained some broken bones to his right leg, but it was the lethal brain injury that had caused his death.
She said it was possible that a helmet could have saved his life.
The jury of five men and one woman deliberated for five minutes before unanimously returning a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence, that death was due to a skull fracture, subdural and subarachnoid haemorrhage, and cerebral oedema, sustained in a road traffic accident.
The jury also endorsed the Coroner’s recommendations about cyclists wearing helmets.
“I would like to advise the general public who cycle – it has become an increasing pastime and hobby – that on roads where they may encounter traffic, to wear safety headgear,” Dr MacLoughlin said.
“It doesn’t go without notice that the late Kevin Smith and his family donated his organs, so although life was becoming extinct for him, it could begin for someone else… it was a gracious quality.”
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