Two teenage girls died after being hit by a tractor trailer in Avoca almost three years ago, Wicklow Circuit Court heard yesterday.
Cyril Hobson (36), a farmer from Kilmagig House, Avoca, Co Wicklow, is accused of dangerous driving causing the deaths of teenage friends Stephanie McCauley (15) and Vanessa Byrne (13) in Avoca in June 2003.
Speaking through an interpreter at the opening of the trial, Mr Hobson, who is deaf and mute, pleaded not guilty.
The court heard that, at lunchtime on June 28th, 2003, the two local girls had just left a sweet shop at the junction of Beech Road and Avoca Bridge.
They crossed the road and as they started on their way along Beech Road, they passed along a gap between a wall and a parked tractor and trailer.
The vehicle was driven by Mr Hobson, who was transporting some 20 bales of silage towards Rathdrum that day.
That Saturday, the court heard, Christopher Reeves, from York, England, was sightseeing and shopping in Avoca. At 12.30pm, he and three companions were sitting on a bench outside Fitz- gerald's pub, directly facing the junction.
He noticed the tractor and trailer coming to a halt at the junction in order to let traffic pass, he said, before it could make a left turn on to the bridge. Directly in front, a red van was parked on a double yellow line, its position narrowing the angle at which the tractor could make its turn.
Mr Reeves's brother-in-law, Ray Soulsby, said that after the tractor had moved forward some six to eight feet, he saw what appeared to be a body turning with the trailer's back wheels, "like clothes going around in a tumble-dryer and dropping in a heap."
Witnesses described Mr Hobson as looking "upset" and "in extreme shock" immediately after the incident.
Two girls lay on the ground behind the trailer and despite attempts to revive them, both were pronounced dead at 1.20pm on the same day.
A Garda examination of Mr Hobson's tractor found it in good roadworthy condition.
Its trailer, specially adapted for agricultural use, was 36 feet long, and had a blind spot of about 16 feet towards the back, the court heard.
In a statement given to gardaí after the incident - and read in court by Sgt Martin McAndrew - Mr Hobson said he brought his tractor to a stop at the junction at 12.30pm.
"I indicated left and moved carefully. . . at about 2mph with a little space on either side." He could see the two girls - one of whom had a bicycle - walking side-by-side between his tractor and the wall. "They were talking and eating crisps," he stated.
The girls continued to walk alongside the trailer and, as he went to swing left, they were out of sight through his mirror. He presumed they had passed the trailer.
The trial continues before Judge Pat McCartan.