Grief-stricken father speaks out over son’s death in bike crash
Gordon Daley, aged 23, from Fennell’s Bay in Crosshaven, Co Cork, died instantly when his motorbike skidded and hit a car on Maryborough Hill on the outskirts of the city on January 10.
He had finished contract work in Boston Scientific in Bishopstown earlier that day.
He was on his way home along a road he knew well when the accident occurred at around 2.30pm.
An inquest into his death last week heard that construction traffic on route to a new housing development had churned up the grass margins on either side of the narrow winding road.
Soft mud, grit and gravel were sprayed across the road and on the downhill bend where Gordon lost control of his bike.
His parents, Vincent and Judith, said while they accepted their son’s death was a tragic accident, they said senior county council management, including county manager Maurice Moloney, must take some responsibility for the condition of the road on the day of the accident.
“We were brought to the scene the day after the accident by Carrigaline gardaí so that we could lay flowers and see where our son died,” Vincent said.
“On inspection the cause of the accident became perfectly clear. The downhill bend where he lost control was covered with a thick surface of mud and grit for a considerable distance.”
Safety signs were put in place soon after the accident drawing attention to the slippery surface.
The road was widened and the grass margins removed and replaced with stony material a few days later.
“Too late for Gordon unfortunately, but at least a similar accident is unlikely to happen to someone else,” Vincent said.
But he said it should have been clear to county planners and road engineers that the road, as it was then, was not suitable for the heavy traffic that the construction works would generate.
“Whilst we accept that his death was a tragic accident, we feel that some considerable responsibility must be apportioned to council planners and engineers in allowing the builders to proceed with the development before the very necessary road improvements were made,” Vincent said.
“Gordon’s death could have been easily avoided if these basic road improvements had been implemented before the construction went ahead.
The couple wrote a letter to Mr Moloney yesterday highlighting the case. Cork city coroner Myra Cullinane, also plans to write to him to outline the findings of the inquest.
Mr and Mrs Daley have asked Mr Moloney to bring the case to the attention of officials in both the council’s roads and planning departments. “We feel they should have been sufficiently qualified to have foreseen this obvious danger and put preventative measures in place before building was allowed to proceed,” Vincent said.
“We are highlighting this matter in the hope that, with your co-operation and due consideration when granting future planning permissions for developments on similarly located sites, dangers to road users and the potential for accidents are minimised and other families do not have to suffer the heartache that our family has in the loss of Gordon.”
