Garda to review 2004 Westport road death

Gardaí have begun a review into the circumstances surrounding a road incident in which a 16-year-old boy from Westport, Co Mayo…

Gardaí have begun a review into the circumstances surrounding a road incident in which a 16-year-old boy from Westport, Co Mayo, died two and a half years ago.

Supt Francis Clerkin, who is attached to the Traffic Division, Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR), has been appointed to carry out the review into the death of Kevin McAndrew in October 2004.

Kevin died in hospital 11 days after his motorcycle was struck from behind on the N5, the main Westport to Castlebar road, at Knockbrack, Westport, on October 14th, 2004.

The crash happened shortly before 8pm and there were two vehicles involved, a silver Toyota Corolla and the Honda NSR 80cc motorcycle which the victim was driving.

READ MORE

Kevin's parents, John and Kathleen McAndrew, had called for an independent investigation into the Garda handling of the incident.

Last year, Fine Gael MEP and Senator Jim Higgins also called for an independent inquiry into the Garda handling of the investigation into the young motorcyclist's death.

At the time, Mr Higgins strongly criticised what he described as Garda "delays and insensitivity" in dealing with the investigation.

According to Mr Higgins, the Garda investigation file from the State Solicitor's office only arrived in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions on April 14th, 2005, 24 hours after the period for bringing a summary prosecution had expired.

The fatal incident occurred as both vehicles involved were travelling towards Castlebar.

It appears that the car crashed into the back of the motorcycle as Kevin was about to leave the main road and go on to a side road.

It is understood that Supt Clerkin, who is based in Dublin Castle, has been to Mayo on a number of occasions to conduct interviews in connection with the review.

He will be travelling again in the near future.

"There have been submissions by a number of people in connection with this tragedy and the purpose of the review is to ensure full transparency," Supt Clerkin said.

Mr McAndrew said that the family welcomed the fact that there was going to be a review of the case.

"It is a great relief to us that the case has been re-opened," Mr McAndrew said.

Kevin is survived by his parents, his twin brother, Gary (19), another brother, David (24), and his sister Caroline.