Not guilty verdict in case of triathlete killed on the road

A JURY has found a Co Galway man not guilty of dangerous driving causing the death of charity founder and businessman, Howard Flannery.

At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, a jury gave a unanimous not guilty verdict and cleared Michael Dillon (38), a father of two, Puirin, Inverin, of dangerous driving causing the death of Mr Flannery (39), Cahercalla, Ennis, Co Clare, on June 3rd, 2007. The jury also returned a unanimous not guilty verdict to clear Mr Dillon of careless driving.

The founder of the Clare Crusaders charity, which provides therapies to special needs children, Mr Flannery, a married father of four, was cycling, part of his training for a triathlon. He was struck from behind by Mr Dillon’s Nissan Xtrail vehicle on the hard shoulder of the N18 dual carriageway near Newmarket-on-Fergus.

Judge Gerard Griffin said if the jury concluded that Mr Dillon suffered a black-out before the impact, it must return a not-guilty verdict.

In his closing speech, Stephen Coughlan, prosecuting, said Mr Dillon’s crashing into Mr Flannery was caused by him suffering fatigue after undergoing a 22-hour day the previous day while on a diving outing to Kerry. Mr Dillon was three hours and 20 minutes into the journey back from Kerry when the incident occurred. In the absence of any medical reasons for losing consciousness, Mr Dillon falling asleep at the wheel explained a lot of matters.

In evidence during the three- day trial, Mr Dillon denied falling asleep at the wheel.

Anthony Sammon SC, defending, said if it was the prosecution’s case that Mr Dillon lost control of the car because of fatigue, it must establish that he knew he was fatigued and drove on regardless. He said Mr Dillon told the jury he did not feel any sensation of fatigue before veering off the road. “Unless Mr Dillon told you a great big lie, there is no evidence to establish that he knew that he was liable to sleep and ignored the warning signals.”

Mr Dillon underwent a number of medical tests in the aftermath to determine why he lost consciousness and all tests returned were normal.

During the trial, Garda Maurice Nolan said Mr Dillon failed to react when his vehicle struck Mr Flannery and carried the victim and his bike for 76 metres on the windscreen on the car before coming to a stop. The court was told that before the impact, Mr Dillon’s 4x4 veered off the dual-carriageway on to the grass verge for 70 metres before mounting a concrete ramp of an underpass to strike Mr Flannery from behind. A cyclist with Mr Flannery was uninjured in the incident.

Garda Nolan concluded that Mr Dillon suffered some form of blackout as he did not react to driving on the uneven ground at the grass verge and the loud noise of the impact.