A summons will be issued for a Polish man who failed to attend an inquest into a high-impact car crash which claimed the life of another man, a coroner said today.
The Dublin City Coroner's Court heard Mariusz Haczykowski was found hanging from a tree branch, while Janusz Szostakiewicz (32) who later died, was found half under the car and was trapped beneath a collapsed wall.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell said he would issue a summons after Mr Haczykowski, who was believed to be the driver and was the only witness to the single-vehicle car crash on the Skerries Road, near Rush, failed to turn up at the inquest.
Gina McGee told the court shortly after 12.30am on October 16th 2005 she was asleep in a back bedroom of a house on the Skerries Road when she heard a loud bang.
After she went outside, she said: "I saw a man hanging across a branch on a tree near where the car had crashed." She said her husband later spotted another man beneath the Polish registered left-hand drive Opel Corsa, which had collided with their front wall.
Damien Dorey, from Dublin Fire Brigade, said one man was found hanging across a tree branch just over the bonnet of the car. He said people had to remove bricks from the other man to begin resuscitation.
"They were both alive but serious at the time," he said.
Sgt Rodney Hodgkinson, from Balbriggan Garda Station, said officers received no co-operation from a number of people they spoke with in Rush as they tried to establish the identity of one of the men involved in the single vehicle crash.
He said they sought the permission of the hospital to speak with Mr Haczykowski but he did not help them. The inquest heard Mr Szostakiewicz was identified after his employer Joe McNally was contacted by a number of Polish people who told him his employee had been in an accident.
Mr McNally said the deceased, who had an address at Hampton Street in Balbriggan, had worked with him from the previous April.
Sgt Hodgkinson said initially Mr Haczykowski admitted he was the driver. "In the course of the initial investigation he admitted to driving then when we took an interpreter he denied, and in subsequent interviews he said the deceased was driving," the sergeant said.
Gardai said Mr Haczykowski was still in the country and had been told to attend the inquest but refused to do so. Sgt Hodgkinson said: "We got very little co-operation in the course of the investigation." He added: "It appears he was travelling on the wrong side of the road then veered over and hit the wall."
Dr Farrell said he would issue a summons and adjourned the inquest until April 13th to ensure the deceased's family were informed.
PA