A Dutch woman lay unconscious for more than 2 1/2 hours on the roadside in Wicklow waiting for a helicopter with a specialist medical team from Beaumont Hospital to arrive, an inquest at the Dublin Coroners Court was told yesterday.
Ms Janet Shenck (28), from Rotterdam, was on a cycling holiday in Ireland with her boyfriend and was turning into the car-park at the Quinnsworth shopping centre at The Glebe, Wicklow, when she was struck by a minibus emerging from the car-park between 3.40 p.m. and 3.50 p.m. on May 2nd, 1996.
An ambulance crew from Wicklow Hospital arrived at 4.05 p.m. and decided her injuries needed specialist treatment. The helicopter carrying the medical team arrived at 6.30 p.m. Ms Shenck was transferred to St Vincent's Hospital Dublin where she died of severe head injuries.
The jury recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Ms Dominique Shefmann, sister of Ms Shenck's boyfriend, said after the hearing she was disappointed there was no excuse or apology for the delay in the arrival of the helicopter. "I will be telling her family this and they will be very sad," she said. "We do not want any other girl or little child bleeding to death in the street waiting for hospital treatment."
An official of the Dutch embassy also attended the hearing.