A FRENCH national told an inquest yesterday he was mentally in France and drove on the right hand side of the road prior to an collision in which an off-duty garda sustained fatal injuries.
Remi Duclos (27), formerly of the Park Inn, Mulranny, Co Mayo, but now resident in Galway, told the inquest in Castlebar that he accepted total responsibility for the crash in which 25-year-old Yvonne Moran died.
Garda Moran, a native of Mulranny, was being driven by her father Kevin Moran to Tiernaur, Co Mayo, on September 14th, 2008, when the car driven by Duclos collided with them head-on. She died the next day in Mayo General Hospital.
Duclos told the inquest, which was conducted by Coroner for south Mayo John O’Dwyer, he had been driving on the wrong side of the road “having come under the impression that I was in France”. In a statement he accepted total responsibility for the collision.
The dead woman’s father told the inquest the other car came at them on the wrong side of the road so fast he barely had time to hit the brakes. At the time Garda Moran was on compassionate leave from Ballmote Garda station, Co Sligo, because one of her brothers had been seriously injured in a road crash.
Earlier this month, Duclos was fined €2,000 for dangerous driving and sentenced to six months in prison, the warrant not to issue for a period of 12 months on condition of good behaviour.