Inquest hears friend cried out on phone to man killed in accident

A young Scotsman was on the phone to a female friend when he was struck by a car and killed while walking home from a St Stephen’s night out in Donegal.

Sean Heraghty died instantly when he was hit by a car at Sandhill, Dunfanaghy at around 4.20am on December 27, 2017. He had been in Donegal visiting family for Christmas.

The 26-year-old from Glasgow was walking in the middle of the road when a car collided with him on a part of the road known locally as the Ceide Straight.

The driver of the car, Mr Keelan McFadden, recalled how he rushed to Mr Heraghty.

Mr McFadden saw the light of a phone beside the man, who was motionless.

“I knew he was dead,” Mr McFadden said. From the phone, Mr McFadden could hear a voice calling out ‘where are you?’ in a panicked tone.

An inquest into the death of Mr Heraghty was held at Letterkenny courthouse on Friday by Donegal Coroner Dr Denis McCauley.

Mr McFadden was not present, but his deposition was read to the inquest by Sergeant Fergus McGrory.

Mr McFadden said he was driving his parents’ car, a Volkswagen Jetta, and had been in the company of some friends.

He was driving from Creeslough back towards Falcarragh when he came around the corner before a straight and put on his full lights. He said his wipers were on full when something stepped out in front of him.

He recalled how he got out of the car and ran back. After he saw the body of a man, face down, he became sick on the roadside.

“I didn’t know what I hit,” he said, noting that the nightclub had finished and people would be walking on the road. “I screeched with panic.”

A passenger in Mr McFadden’s car, Ms Leigh Anne Sharkey, in a deposition read in her absence, recalled how she was scrolling on her phone while they were going through Portnablagh and she heard a bang.

Mr McFadden got out and ran back. “I grabbed the phone and ran after him,” Ms Sharkey said.

At 4.22am, Ms Sharkey called 999 and told the operator that she believed that a man on the road was dead.

She noticed a phone laying beside the man lit up as it was ringing. The phone showed a number of missed calls.

Mr Kieran McClafferty and Mr Mark Langan recalled driving in the area around the time. Mr McClafferty told how he saw something on the road as he went around the bent in Portnablagh. “It never occurred to me that what I saw was a person,” he said. “There was no rain falling but the road was wet. Maybe five minutes before, it was pouring the rain.”

Mr Langan told the inquest that he saw a man in a dark shirt with no coat on, illuminated only by the light of the phone he was using at the time.

A deposition from Mr Ciaran Harkin said he was driving in the area and saw a ‘fella weaving and on the phone’. Mr Harkin flashed to the next few cars he encountered to alter them and when he came back the same road soon after, the same man was laying on the middle of the road.

Mr Neil Brogan said he had to take evasive action to avoid a man who was ‘standing in the middle of the road’ while he was dropping some friends to Ards.

Garda Brendan O’Connor came Eoin the scene and heard a girl screaming. He was advised that a car collided with a person and he called for assistance from colleagues and Fr Martin Doohan arrived to provide spiritual assistance at the scene.

Garda O’Connor said that a man on the road ‘showed no signs of life’.

A road side breath test gave a negative result for the presence of alcohol.

At 6.02am, a doctor from NoWDOC pronounced Mr Heraghty as deceased and at 3.45pm the following day Ms Kay Kelly, an aunt of Mr Heraghty, formally identified the body.

A post mortem examination on Mr Heraghty showed injuries that were common with being hit by a bumper. Dr McCauley said the post mortem results showed that Mr Heraghty was in a standing position when he was struck by the vehicle.

Dr McCauley said Mr Heraghty suffered ‘a very significant brain injury’, one that was incompatible with life. “There was no coming back from that,” Dr McCauley said, adding that a toxicology report showed a ‘high level of alcohol’ in Mr Heraghty’s system.

A report from a Garda PSV inspector confirmed that Mr McFadden’s car was in a serviceable pre-accident condition, including its steering, suspension, braking and tyres.

Sergeant Gerard McCauley, a forensic collision investigator, said the accident occurred in a rural area on a single-carriageway.

The deceased way laying on the road in a pool of blood when Sergeant McCauley surveyed the scene. Small pieces of vehicular debris were scattered, while a black leather shoe was found in a grass verge 12.8m away and the driver-side wing mirror unit of a car was found 17.4m away.

The weather and the condition of the road or the car were not contributory factors in the collision, which happened ‘very much in the hours of darkness, Sergeant McCauley said.

Mr Heraghty was not wearing reflective clothing and was a pedestrian in the middle of the road, the Sergeant added.

Dr McCauley said this was a tragic accident that happened just after Christmas.

“It was a dreadful thing for a family to encounter,” Dr McCauley said. “When it happens in a different country at that time, it is very difficult to manage and come to terms with. Somebody has lost a brother and somebody has lost a son.”

He said the cause of death was a head injury as a result of a road traffic accident