'He staggered off the path and the car hit him. He hit the windscreen of the car and then fell down onto the road'
William Walsh's widow casts her eyes downward as a photograph of the car that struck her late husband is projected on the overhead screen.
She has agreed to remain in the courtroom while the jury is shown the damage to the navy Nissan Sunny, and listens intently as the inquest hears that, by the shape of the contorted metal, it was a forceful impact from the body of her 74-year-old husband that shattered the windscreen and forced in the Nissan's front wing.
William had left his home in Athy, Co Kildare, at 2.35pm to go for a short walk. He was in good health and revelled in the sort of active life that could leave a man half his age breathless. "He was 74 in age, but not in mind," one of his daughters tells the inquest. That very night, he was to go dancing.
It was early autumn, and the local schools had reopened their doors after the long summer break. September 8th, 2004, fell on a Wednesday. He met some neighbours on the way, exchanged greetings, and took his familiar route along the road that would bring a man all the way to Dublin if he were to keep a straight line.
As he made his way past Purcell's pub towards the Canal Bridge, he passed a workman - John Walsh - who was sweeping up around the toe of the humpback bridge.
John Walsh had his back turned to the road, but when he later recounted to gardaí those final few seconds, he recalled happening to glance over his shoulder just at the moment when William seemed to stop in his stride. "I looked over my shoulder and I saw a man staggering on the footpath," says John Walsh. "I saw the man stagger off the path in front of the car that was coming along.
"He staggered off the path and the car hit him. He hit the windscreen of the car and then he fell down onto the road. The driver of the car . . . was a coloured female."
Bimpe Adebayo takes her place uneasily in the witness box and shoots a glance towards the public gallery. Seven of the seats are filled; to the left of the centre aisle are two companions of hers; to the right five members of William Walsh's family, the dead man's wife right in the middle, a daughter's arm folded in hers.
Ms Adebayo speaks little English, and cannot make out what the Dublin city coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, is asking her. A friend offers to translate. She had just picked up her children from school that day and they were on their way home. Her Nissan Sunny had slowed down as it passed through Athy, she says, and as the car approached the bridge, she would have slowed to about 20 mph. "She was on the bridge going down," the friend says, "and she saw the old man fell on windscreen of car. She stopped the car. He was walking towards the car as far as she can remember."
Garda Alan Kavanagh, who arrived at the scene within minutes, describes how he first saw the victim lying still on the ground and Ms Adebayo standing over him in shock at what had happened.
When Ms Adebayo's car was examined by Sgt Donal Prendergast, a Garda vehicle inspector, it was found to be in serviceable condition with no defects. To his mind, the damage to the car "is consistent with the pedestrian stumbling into the windscreen, because there's no damage to the front, only to the side."
In the public gallery, William Walsh's family shift agitatedly, whispering among themselves. The autopsy on Mr Walsh's body found that he suffered a severe head injury; his brain had severe bruising as well as secondary swelling, and he died three days later, on September 11th, 2004.
"I don't know that Mr Walsh had some sort of coronary event," says the coroner, "but it is a possibility. He could have lost his balance."
After returning a verdict of accidental death, the jury asks the coroner to contact Kildare County Council to ask that it install a safety barrier on the Canal Bridge in Athy to prevent similar crashes.
As William Walsh's widow is comforted by her children, the coroner offers his sympathy to the family.
"Perhaps something will come out of Mr Walsh's death that will be in the public interest," he says.
The court rises. "