The driver of an ambulance that struck and killed a young woman who had stopped to give assistance at the scene of a traffic accident, has left the country and did not appear at the inquest into her death yesterday.
Dundalk Coroner's Court heard that John Coyne had returned to Canada and had made this known to investigating gardaí. He cannot be summonsed to appear from that jurisdiction.
The court heard from another witness that Mr Coyne thought the thump he heard had been a dog he had hit.
The ambulance also struck and badly injured another man. The family of 27-year-old Gloria Corrigan, Oriel Park, Emyvale, Co Monaghan, heard that she was one of four passengers in a taxi taking them home from Dundalk in the early hours of October 16th, 2005.
At Hackballscross they came across a minor traffic accident involving a car. A man and woman who had been in the car were standing on the road side.
John Clerkin, who was in the passenger seat of the taxi, said that as he got out of the taxi to let this man in, he saw the blue lights of the ambulance approaching and said help was on the way.
He said the other passengers, including Gloria, were getting out and he saw the ambulance "coming at high speed". It drove between the taxi and the car and he then heard a loud bang.
The other three passengers, including Gloria, were lying on the road. He went to Gloria but could not find a pulse.
He said that when he spoke to John Coyne at the scene he told him he thought he had hit a dog. "I noticed he wore thick glasses," Mr Clerkin added.
Carmel Hayde, who was sitting beside Gloria, said: "I saw the ambulance approaching very quickly from the Castleblayney direction." She heard Gloria say something and the ambulance collided with her. The postmortem found Gloria died from severe head injuries and she would have been rendered unconscious immediately.
Gardaí said the taxi's warning lights were on when they arrived and the ambulance had travelled 60ft (18m) from the point of impact.
Emergency medical technician Dominic McEvoy, who travelled in the front of the ambulance with the driver, said that when they got the call the driver turned on the blue lights and increased speed slightly.
He said two cars passed them and they saw another vehicle coming, he believed, towards them. However, this vehicle, which turned out to be the taxi, was stopped in the middle of the carriageway and he saw there were six people standing behind it. The ambulance braked. He said John Coyne had been distraught after the accident.
Cross-examined by Brian Carroll, for the Corrigan family, he said he did not see the warning lights on the taxi because they were approaching it from the front.
The jury found that Gloria died in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, the following day and her head injuries were a result of the collision. They returned a verdict of accidental death.