THE PRUNING of trees to facilitate road works along a street had “a significant part to play” in a freak accident that claimed the life of a retired school teacher who was killed when a falling branch crashed on to the footpath where she was walking.
Maura Horgan (57), who had only recently married, was hit by a falling branch after a passing lorry struck the overhanging branch, as she was walking to her South Circular Road home in Limerick city.
A jury at an inquest into her death, yesterday, recommended that careful attention be given to overhanging branches when traffic is diverted, to avoid a similar tragedy happening again.
“We would like to prevent any other family from having to go through this situation again,” said Michael Horgan after his late wife’s inquest, “so we were glad that a recommendation was made. We really don’t want to see this happen again because it is very painful for all involved”.
He said he would like all safety measures to be followed in future in accordance with the jury’s recommendation.
Works were taking place on the outbound route of O’Connell Avenue on April 22nd last year and traffic had been diverted to the opposite side of the road.
Pauline O’Connor, a midwife, from Dooradoyle who was driving behind a truck told the inquest that she saw “a branch of a tree falling and hitting a woman”.
Ms O’Connor said she blew her horn to alert the truck driver but she did not think that he had heard her. “As far as I remember, the truck hadn’t much room,” she told the inquest. The witness tended to Mrs Horgan at the scene, and after finding her identification she contacted the injured woman’s husband to tell him that his wife had been hit by a falling branch.
Mark Nicholas, on behalf of the bereaved family, thanked Ms O’Connor “for the assistance you gave her that day”.
Joe Twomey told the court that he was supervising the laying of pipes for Bord Gáis along the avenue and a standard road traffic plan was implemented.
He said they had contacted the parks department at Limerick City Council when they were preparing the road traffic plan because they realised the danger the overhanging trees posed to traffic. Mr Twomey said the council pruned the trees before the works began.
The court heard that the driver of the refrigerated truck was tracked down several hours later.
Patrick O’Connor was contacted by Sgt Pádraig Sutton who asked him to call to Roxboro Garda station. It was not until Mr O’Connor arrived at the station that he “learned of the gravity of the situation”.
The result of a postmortem revealed that death was due to head trauma and multiple skull fractures. The jury found in accordance with the medical evidence and made recommendations that all safety measures be taken when traffic is diverted on roads.