Teacher killed after lorry hit tree branch
It was claimed that Limerick City Council did not take sufficient safety measures to adequately prune trees along a busy street where a gas pile line was being laid.
Maura Horgan, 57, of Ashbourne Park, South Circular Road, and originally from Glin, Co Limerick, died on April 22 after the accident when she was out walking at around 10.30am.
She had been married only five months and had taken early retirement from a secondary school where she taught Irish.
The lorry driver involved was unaware he had hit the branch of the tree which fell and hit Ms Horgan.
He only learned of the tragedy when alerted hours later after his vehicle was traced with the help of CCTV.
The inquest heard Limerick City Council had pruned trees to facilitate traffic arrangements for the pipe laying.
Garda Michael Reddy, a garda scenes of accident expert, told the coroner’s court the pruning exercise was not adequate to prevent the trees being hit by high sided lorries.
“The arrangement of traffic cones and bollards in conjunction with the pruning of the trees had a significant part to play in this tragedy,” the garda said.
From his investigations, there was no evidence of excessive speed our anything out of the ordinary with regard to the driving of the lorry. The vehicle was in good condition. He said the lorry did not mount the footpath.
Joe Twomey, foreman at the gas pipe line laying operation, said traffic lanes had been put in place at the commencement of work that morning in accordance with their traffic management plan.
At the commencement of the pipe laying some weeks earlier, it had been noticed that trees along the side of the road were an issue and the city council was asked to prune them.
The driver of the lorry involved in the accident, Patrick O’Connor from Parteen, said he did not recall hitting anything and the first he knew of the accident was when he was contacted by gardaí. If he knew his truck had hit a tree he would have stopped.
Dr Elizabeth Mulcahy, pathologist, said Ms Horgan died from multiple skull fractures.
Mark Nicholas, BL, for Ms Horgan’s family submitted to coroner Dr Tony Casey that the jury should recommend that those responsible for these type of works should take extra care.
The jury recorded a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence and recommended that those engaged in road works should take greater care when road works are taking place in the surroundings of trees.
After the hearing, widower Michael Horgan said: “We would like to prevent any family from going through something like this again. So we were glad the jury made a recommendation and that this recommendation is understood.
“Trees should be more pruned. There should be more safety measures. My Maura would otherwise be here with me. We are absolutely gutted. I am gutted and I am sure I can speak for the rest of the family. We will get on with our grieving.”
