This article is from page 12 of the 2008-09-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
A VERDICT of accidental death has been recorded in the case of a Dublin man who died after being struck by a car in Kilkee last January.
Stephen O’Reilly had been out for a night in the west Clare town when the accident occurred in the early hours of the morning of January 30, 2007.
22-year-old Mr O’Reilly was struck by acar driven by one of his friends. He died at the scene. County Coro-
ner Isobel O’Dea expressed her sym- pathy to Mr O’Reilly’s family and many friends saying his death was a ‘sad and tragic outcome of a holiday weekend in Clare”.
Richard Whitley, a friend of Mr O’Reilly’s who travelled to Kilkee with him recalled the night the acci- dent occurred. He said that after the group had returned from the pub to their accommodation on O’Connell Street, Kilkee, Mr O’Reilly gave the keys of his car to another friend, Denise O’ Reilly.
‘IT saw Stephen’s car coming down the road. It sounded like Stephen Shouted ‘Come on’,’ said Mr White- M4 ‘He stepped out onto the road and the car hit him. He hit the wind- screen. I asked him to squeeze his hand if he could hear me. A doctor that was passing said he was dead.”
Terry O’Reilly, the deceased’s fa- ther, identified his son’s body in the mortuary on January 30. Garda John Convey described the scene of the accident.
“I noticed a green Honda civic parked on the incorrect side of the road, facing towards Kilrush. There was a person lying on the road. There was a small pool of blood near the head. Doctor Ellis pronounced him dead at 1.15pm.”
Dr John O’Callaghan carried out the post mortem on Mr O’Reilly at University College Hospital, Galway. He found that the cause of death was multiple injuries including a frac- tured skull consistent with injuries sustained in a road traffic accident.
Advising the jury of five men and one woman, Ms O’Dea said the ap- propriate verdict was one of acci- dental death. The foreman of the jury expressed his sympathy with the O’Reilly family. Inspector John Galvin expressed sympathy to the O’Reilly family on behalf of the Clare Garda division on the “sad, tragic and untimely death of a young man”. Terry O’Reilly thanked the gardai, members of the rescue serv- ices and the Clare public for their Support.