"She never regained her footing but fell immediately on the spot, disappearing under the front skirt of the truck"

The Coroner's Court: It was four days before Christmas, and Mary and Bernadette Molloy were on their way to deliver presents…

The Coroner's Court: It was four days before Christmas, and Mary and Bernadette Molloy were on their way to deliver presents to their cousin in Phibsboro in Dublin that morning.

Bernadette - who worked as a nurse in the nearby St Vincent's Centre on the Navan Road - told her sister she wanted to stop by at her local bank in Cabra on the way. The roads were brimming with last-minute shoppers heading to the city centre.

"As Bernie went to the bank I went across the road to Clarke's Cafe to have a cup of tea and wait for her," says Mary Molloy. "Bernie was in great form that morning.

She loved Christmas. I went into the cafe at around 11am. At about 11.15am or so I decided to go look for Bernie as she hadn't come to the cafe as agreed."

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Minutes before that, Raymond Murray had brought his 40-foot DAF lorry to a halt at a pedestrian crossing at the junction between New Cabra Road and Dowth Avenue, in a predominantly residential area. He had made a delivery in Blanchardstown that morning and was now en route to Dublin Port to catch the ferry to Britain.

There were three or four cars in front of him. When the lights turned green, he moved forward, but without room to clear both the pedestrian crossing and the junction with his trailer, he stopped just before the crossing. When he saw that there was enough room, he moved slowly forward.

"Just before this I had noticed a lady standing on the footpath at the edge of the road to my left," says Mr Murray. "Waiting for the lights to change. I had the green light and I proceeded but unfortunately the woman had stepped into my way.

I felt a slight bump and stopped the truck and that's when I noticed a torso sticking out from the side of the truck." One of Bernadette Molloy's shoes lay mid-way between the front and rear axles of the cab.

Another driver, Dermot McDermott, was sitting in his car at the junction, facing the incident. "I remember my eye being drawn to a woman crossing the New Cabra Road on or around the pedestrian crossing.

As she crossed in front of the truck it moved forward, knocking her off balance. She never regained her footing but fell immediately on the spot, disappearing under the front skirt of the truck as it moved forward. It wasn't a stumbling movement; she literally dropped.

"She fell very catastrophically. I flashed my lights and sounded the horn to try to make the driver of the truck aware of what was happening, but then the truck jerked as the left-hand wheels ran over the woman."

Another witness, Darren Buttimer, who was directly behind Mr Murray's lorry, agreed the lights had been green for their lane.

At the inquest into Bernadette Molloy's death at Dublin City Coroner's Court, Garda Anthony Kelly said that the weather, road condition, markings or pedestrian lights played no part in the incident, while a thorough inspection of the truck found it in good mechanical condition.

However, Garda Kelly found the view to the front and left of such lorries can be restricted. "I am satisfied that a pedestrian approximately 1.5 metres in height would not be seen within approximately a two-metre radius of the front and side of the vehicle," he said.

Bernadette Molloy, who was 54, was brought to the Mater hospital, where attempts to resuscitate her failed, and where she died at 12.45pm on the same day, December 21st, 2004. Mary Molloy and her brother Desmond sat in the public gallery, their hands clasped throughout, and agreed to remain in the courtroom while City Coroner Dr Brian Farrell summarised the autopsy. Ms Molloy died of multiple traumatic injuries, he said, with fractures of the ribs, limbs and spine.

Dr Farrell told the inquest that he had presided over eight recent cases in which a pedestrian or cyclist had been killed in a truck's blindspot, and noted there is no legal requirement in the Republic for trucks to have front-facing "cyclops" mirrors.

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

• This is a series on road deaths and how they happen