SIGNAGE and road markings "played no small part” in the tragic death of a Co Down GAA player who was killed on the A1 dual carriageway, a court heard yesterday.
Newry Crown Court was told how a combination of factors — the two defendants not knowing the road or its topography, the poor signage and overgrown grass verge on what Judge Paul Ramsey QC said was possibly “the busiest road in Northern Ireland — led to the tragic death of Karl Heaney on May 23 2018.
Prosecuting QC Samuel Magee said that Mr Heaney’s mother had campaigned with politicians and other interested parties in an attempt to limit the possibility of a similar tragedy ever happening to someone else.
Opening the Crown case against 33-year-old Shelagh McMahon and British Army Captain Donald Hughes (35) Mr Magee outlined how having never met before, the pair shared a meal at the Halfway House restaurant and were driving in convoy back to her home in Carlingford when they unwittingly drove the wrong way down the A1 carriageway.
Neither of them were familiar with the road and as the pair approached the junction of the A1 and the Halfway Road they turned right, making the “gravely careless error” of believing they were on a normal road whereas, in fact, they were driving the wrong way in the fast lane of the A1.
Mr Magee explained that at the junction, there was a small dual carriageway plate below the 'give way' sign and while it was in “a relatively poor condition” it could be seen in headlights but the camber of the road, coupled with an overgrown grass verge, “would not have made the far carriageway obvious in night-time conditions.”
Mr Heaney, he told the court, was heading to see his fiancée Ciara having trained with Newry Mitchels GAC and called at his parents’ home to see his sister before she flew back to Australia the following day when the fatal impact occurred.
Drivers who came on the collision described a “traumatic scene of chaos” and Mr Magee said in the force of the impact the “engine and gear box of Mr Heaney’s Ford had been excised from the vehicle...and were lying in the middle of the road.”
An off duty nurse and a consultant anaesthetist arrived at the scene and carried out initial CPR until Mr Heaney was cut from the wreckage and rushed to RVH in a “breathing but critical condition.”
But with the extent of his head and chest injuries Mr Heaney never regained consciousness.
The court heard at the scene, McMahon was so traumatised and she fainted while Hughes was also in a very distressed state, shouting “I’ve caused this” “I’ve killed him, what have I done, what have I done?”
The pair were arrested and interviewed and later entered guilty pleas to causing the death of the 27-year-old by driving carelessly.
Lodging a plea in, Hughes’ defence QC Frank O’Donoghue said the army captain “will have to carry with him the burden of his responsibilities through his entire life.”
“It’s probably one of the busiest, if not the busiest road in NI,” said Judge Ramsey and Mr O’Donoghue agreed “absolutely.”
The sentiments of remorse and regret were echoed by Greg Berry QC, on behalf of McMahon, who was “part and parcel of a tragedy” which claimed the life of a “fine young man.”
Freeing the defendants on bail, Judge Ramsey said he wanted to reflect on the submissions, reports and sentencing authorities and listed the sentencing hearing for June 7.
