A GRIEVING family has called for realignment of roads at an accident blackspot following the tragic death of a 16-year-old who was killed when a car failed to stop at a junction and collided with a milk truck in which he was a passenger. The driver of the car also died.
Daire Maxwell (16) of Cedar Wood Reask, Dun Shaughlin, Co Meath was travelling in a milk delivery truck on the morning of May 12th, 2007 when the crash occurred at the Ward Cross, North Road, Dublin 11.
Daire, a student at Ashbourne Community School, who was described by his foster mother, Carmel McKeown, yesterday as “hard-working, popular and outgoing,” died immediately of massive intercranial trauma when a silver Toyota sportscar, travelling on the R121 failed to stop and drove through the junction.
He was working at his part-time job at the time, the inquest heard.
The driver of the car, Donna Beresford (39), of The Pure Park, Finglas, Dublin 11 was also killed instantly in the collision.
The joint inquest into the deaths of Ms Beresford and Daire at Dublin County Coroner’s Court yesterday heard that Ms Beresford would have passed three Stop signs with rumble strips on her approach to the junction and that the approach was well signalled. The stop line was worn away, the court heard.
The driver of the milk truck would not have been able to avoid the collision, collision investigator Garda Edward Davin said.
Questioned by the coroner, Dr Kieran Geraghty, as to how the incident might have been avoided, Garda Davin said the only possibility of addressing the matter was an extensive realignment of the minor roads some 100m back from the junction.
Garda John Maguire of Blanchardstown Garda station told the inquest that over the last eight years there had been a total of 35 accidents at that spot, including this one and two other incidents where people were seriously injured.
Garda Maguire described the number of collisions there as, “quite high”. Alcohol or drugs were not a factor in the collision.
A jury of six men and three women returned a verdict of accidental death under the direction of coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty and accepted the information that a roundabout is being planned for the area.
Speaking after the inquest Mrs McKeown, who was in court with her husband Edward and with Daire’s two sisters, Elaine (21) and Michelle (19) said she was unhappy with the verdict of the jury and called for the realignment of roads at the junction.
“We think this is misadventure. Thirty-nine people have been killed on that road since 1939. You can count the crosses on the side of the road.
“Now they’re telling us there’s going to be a roundabout. It won’t happen. It hasn’t happened in the good times and it won’t happen now. The roads need to be realigned. It’s a notorious blackspot,” Mrs McKeown said.
Daire and his sisters lost both of their parents to cancer and the McKeowns are their foster parents.