Gardai to review investigation into fatal crash in Donegal

Gardaí have begun a review of an investigation into a crash which claimed the life of a young woman in Co Donegal. Her family has alleged the original Garda inquiry was seriously flawed.

The family of Sinead McDaid (22) believe road works at the crash scene contributed to her death.

They believe Donegal gardaí and Donegal County Council have a number of questions to answer about their daughter's death.

Following campaigning for a reinvestigation of the crash, the Garda authorities have confirmed that the original investigation will now be reviewed and the family's concerns addressed.

Ms McDaid was killed in a single-car collision on the Malin to Culdaff road at Dunross on June 12th, 2001. Her husband, Rodney McDaid of Culdaff, Co Donegal, and her parents, Sean and Magdalene Farren of Carndonagh, Co Donegal, have pursued civil actions against Donegal County Council.

One of the civil actions was settled out of court last year with no admission of liability. A second case is pending.

When contacted about the new Garda review, the council said, because legal proceedings were outstanding, it could not answer queries put to it by The Irish Times.

Mr Farren said he recently made a statement to gardaí outlining the issues he wants reinvestigated. Among the matters raised in his Garda statement are:

Loose chippings at the road works where the crash happened may have resulted in Ms McDaid's car veering off the road. Family members claim they saw these chippings being swept from the road before gardaí took photographs of the scene;

Signage at the scene warning about the road works was inadequate and it is alleged extra signs were put in place before Garda photographs were taken;

Skid marks from Ms McDaid's car included on sketches in a file sent to the DPP were not from the dead woman's car but were made by the tow truck used to pull Ms McDaid's car from the field were it came to rest;

The crash scene was not preserved and traffic was allowed to contaminate it before the Garda examination.

Mr Farren said his family was entitled to the full details about the condition of the road and set-up of the road works at the crash scene. "We also want to know why the scene of a fatal accident wasn't even preserved."

The family has enlisted the services of a number of professional crash-scene investigators.

It is from their reports that Mr Farren believes the road was unsafe on the day of the accident, and that the skid-mark drawings in the Garda file are marks from the tow truck and not from his daughter's car.

Following representations by Dr Jerry Cowley TD (Ind) and Senator Jim Higgins (FG), the Department of Justice has contacted Ms McDaid's family in the last fortnight.

According to the department, the accident which claimed Ms McDaid's life was not reported to gardaí when it happened. A district patrol car came upon the scene on the day.

It was established by gardaí that a person had been taken to hospital.

Preliminary measurements of the crash site were taken by gardaí, but because there was no indication of the seriousness of the crash, the scene was not preserved and became contaminated by other traffic.

An investigation file on the collision was submitted to the DPP. In October 2001, it was recommended no prosecution take place.