Drunk driver’s victim was tossed 30 metres from car

A young woman walking home from a party died instantly when she was thrown nearly 30 metres after being struck by a car, a Galway Inquest heard.

Tracey Melia (24) of Tumnahulla, Corrandulla suffered ‘catastrophic head injuries’ when she was hit by a drink driver who left the scene in the early hours of May 10 last year.

Tracey and her boyfriend, John McDonagh, had attended the after-party of a wedding in Peggy’s Bar at Aughclogheen, Corrandulla and had decided to walk the half mile home to her parents’ house.

They had been with Tracey’s parents earlier in the evening at the party and had enjoyed a night among friends and neighbours before heading home shortly after midnight.

The Coroner’s Court heard that there was no footpaths or public lighting and that John had used the torch on his mobile phone to assist them and alert motorists too of their presence.

They had just crossed the road as there was a wider road margin when they heard the noise of a car revving and then coming at high speed.

They jumped up onto the high verge but the car kept coming at them. John told the Inquest he kept waving his torch but he knew they were going to be hit.

Next he knew he woke up on the road and called Tracey’s name but he got no response. Then he saw her lying motionless on the road and he thought she had lost her leg so he ran for help as his phone was dead.

He ran the wrong way and got to Tracey’s home where he found a phone in her dad’s van which he used to call the emergency services.

Meanwhile, passing motorists had also called the emergency services and the road was closed to passing traffic.

A statement given by the drink driver – also a neighbour of Tracey’s – Stephen Flaherty was read at the Inquest.

He admitted to having drunk about 15 pints that evening in Peggy’s Bar and had driven home. However, he had no memory of the accident and was found unconscious in his car in his own driveway by Gardaí. He later cried in the hospital when he was told what had happened.

Flaherty has since been convicted of drunk driving and received a five year prison sentence and has been disqualified from driving for twenty years. He had a blood alcohol reading of 261mg/100mls.

Garda Ollie White, a road traffic accident forensic specialist, said he had concluded that the driver mounted the raised ditch before hitting the pedestrians and that there had been no evidence of him braking.

He estimated that the driver was doing between 59km and 72km per hour at the point of impact and judged this on how far Tracey had been thrown after the impact.

Dr Michael Curtis, pathologist, in his statement, concluded that the cause of death had been from catastrophic head injuries as a result of being struck by a car and thrown almost 30 metres. Her injuries would have caused instant death.

A jury of six returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.

The Coroner, Ciaran McLoughlin, said it had been an extremely difficult and tragic case saying his heart went out to the whole family on the loss of a young vibrant woman.