A POLISH cyclist sustained fatal head injuries when he was struck by a car on a roundabout near Irishtown, the Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard yesterday.
Wlodzimierez Soczynski (44) was cycling home from his work as a welder/mechanic on October 27th, 2007, with a friend, Roman Kontek, when they came to the Seán Moore roundabout.
Witness George Hill said he saw the cyclists stopping before they entered the roundabout. They moved on to the roundabout, then he saw a car behind them and Mr Soczynski was sent “flying eight feet in the air”. He remembered thinking the driver had not seen the cyclists. Mr Soczynski, who was not wearing a helmet, landed on his back, hitting his head.
In a statement to the court, Mr Kontek, who has since died, said he was cycling slightly ahead of his friend when he heard him shouting: “What is she doing? She’s going to hit me”. He looked around and saw the car, driven by Paula Mullaney, hitting his friend.
Mr Soczynski was bleeding and complaining of a bad headache. He was taken to St Vincent’s hospital and later transferred to Beaumont Hospital, where he died on November 16th from the head injury.
His daughter Roksana came from Poland for the inquest. She expressed concern that her father was not immediately taken to Beaumont Hospital as it specialised in head injuries. She also asked why it took 55 minutes for her father to reach the hospital.
Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell expressed regret that a Dublin Fire Brigade member had not attended as some of these questions could have been answered.
The jury passed a verdict of accidental death and asked the coroner to write to Dublin City Council’s traffic division seeking a re-evaluation of the junction.
