A motorcyclist who sustained fatal injuries when the stolen motorbike he was riding collided with a car was being followed by gardaí prior to the impact, an inquest heard yesterday.
A jury of six men and two women returned a verdict of death by misadventure under the direction of the coroner, Dr Brian Farrell.
Liam Robinson (35), Newtown Drive, Coolock, Dublin, was killed instantly when the motorcycle he was driving collided first with a car, and then crashed into the railings of a pedestrian barrier in a heavy vehicle impact near Coolock on August 10th, 2006, Dublin City Coroner's Court heard.
A pillion passenger on the motorcycle, Darren McDonnell, was thrown 46 metres when the Honda 750cc collided with an Opel Astra at the junction of the Malahide Road and Coolock Retail Park at about 4.05pm.
The motorbike, which was reported stolen at Killiney, Co Dublin, seven days before the fatal collision, was being followed by gardaí at the time of the incident, but the Garda car was not in close pursuit.
A postmortem confirmed that Mr Robinson died of multiple severe injuries, including a fracture of the spinal cord.
The deceased had a significant level of morphine, probably from heroin, in his system at the time of death, as well as small amounts of methadone and sedative type-drugs, the inquest heard.
Garda Kevin Hoey and Sgt Patrick McMenamin, who were patrolling the Coolock subdistrict in an unmarked car as part of Operation Anvil, came upon the motorbike at Ferrycarrig Drive at about 4pm on August 10th and decided to try and stop the vehicle when the driver started behaving suspiciously.
Sgt McMenamin told the court that they made a decision to follow the vehicle, with a view to stopping it, when it suddenly increased speed.
They turned the siren and lights on and followed the motorbike, but it was not a close pursuit and their last sighting of the motorbike was as it turned on to the Malahide Road. Minutes later they came upon the fatal incident.
Mr McDonnell told the court that Mr Robinson had collected him earlier that day on the bike to deliver a message to a house in Belcamp, and while he suspected the bike was "a ringer", or stolen, this was never confirmed to him.
At the time of the collision Mr McDonnell said the bike was going very fast, about 100 miles an hour but, he told the court, it was just an estimate.