Call for warning signs at fatal bend

A coroner has called for warning signs to be erected at a notorious bend on the main road between Killarney and Tralee where three people died in two separate accidents in “exactly the same place.”

The section of road on the main N22 Killarney to Tralee road was adequate for speeds of 100km an hour, the inquest into the death of Lukasz Hajduk, a Polish national living in Tralee was told.

The county council had examined the roadway at the request of Kerry South coroner, Terence Casey, and in a letter read by the coroner said the roadway accorded with NRA design, speed was a factor in both fatal accidents and the drivers had lost control after coming off the bend.

Mr Hajduk, 27, of Oakpark, Tralee, was driving to Tralee in his Subaru Legacy estate on October 3, 2013, shortly before midnight when he disappeared from view at Dunrine, his friend who was driving behind him on the night said.

Mr Hajduk had been driving fast. The road in front was empty and after searching he found Mr Hajduk strapped inside the car, in the front garden of a house, the friend said.

Garda vehicles inspector, Garda Jim O’Brien, who examined the scene, said the driver had lost control at the left-hand bend, slid sideways, collided with the ditch and “barrel-rolled” into the front field of the house. “The vehicle had entered the left bend at too great a speed and lost control,” the inspector said.

The location was “exactly the same place” where a previous fatal accident had occurred — in which Peter Galwey, 21, and Timothy Reidy, 19, both of Castleisland, had died shortly after midnight on August 13, 2009, he said.

Mr Casey called for signs to be erected, saying the reality was people did exceed 100km an hour on that roadway.

The deceased had died at the scene from injuries consistent with a road traffic accident. He extended his sympathy to the friends and family of Mr Hajduk.