A detective garda attached to the National Bureau of Crime Investigation yesterday told an inquest he may have "dozed off" at the wheel of an official unmarked Garda car seconds before colliding with a cyclist and killing him.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.
Det Garda Michael Martin told an inquest into the death of Mr Shane O'Neill (37), of Cherrywood Park, Clondalkin, at Dublin City Coroner's Court yesterday that he left work at Harcourt Square at 2 p.m. on December 22nd last.
He had just finished a week of night duty and was also working days. Between the roundabout at the M50 and Newlands Cross he hit something and panicked.
He said he stopped the car for a moment and then drove on.
"I panicked because I was taking an official car home with me and I should not have it. I finished work at 2 p.m. and was driving home.
"I had just finished night duty and also had been working days. If I knew it was a cyclist I had hit I would have gone to his aid," he said.
He said he was deeply upset by the incident and expressed his sympathy to the O'Neill family.
He parked the car opposite Rathcoole Garda station and when a garda called to his home that morning he told him what had happened.
Det Garda Martin said he had no drink taken on the night.
He was driving at average speed and did not see the cyclist or a lens from a light on the bicycle on the passenger's seat of his car after the impact.
The inquest was told that debris from the bicycle and car was strewn over an area of about 50 yards.
Considerable damage, including a broken windscreen, was caused to the car in the collision.
Lighting in the area was poor at the time and has not been improved since. A post-mortem examination by Prof John Harbison, State Pathologist, showed that Mr O'Neill died of severe head and neck injuries.
The jury of five men and two women returned a verdict of accidental death and recommended the public lighting in the area should be examined urgently.
During the inquest the O'Neill family asked if they could make a statement but the Coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, said the content of the letter they had submitted, though "very poignant", concerned matters outside the jurisdiction of the court. In the District Court last May, Det Garda Martin was fined and disqualified from driving for five years, having pleaded guilty to careless driving, failing to stop at the scene and failing to report the incident.