A widow yesterday told how her husband died beside her when a tractor drove up on to the roof of their car, crushing it, after a collision on a narrow country lane.
Ms Mary Foley escaped without serious injury, but her husband, Peter (66), was fatally injured in the accident which happened as they were returning to their home at Lisheen, Ballyhooly, Co Cork, on August 7th, 1998.
"We had just gone round a bend when I saw a tractor and trailer coming towards us . . . He was going very fast . . . A huge wheel just came on top of the car and crushed my husband," an emotional Mrs Foley told Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
She was giving evidence in the trial of Mr Maurice O'Connell (21), The Castle, Ballymacphilip, Ballyhooly, who denies a charge of dangerous driving causing the death of Mr Foley at Knockananig, Fermoy.
Mrs Foley told how she and her husband first saw the tractor 100 yards away after they rounded the bend on the narrow roadway, and her husband stopped the car, having pulled in as close as he could to the left.
Her husband had enough time to jump out of the car and save himself, but he had pulled in so close to the ditch she could not get out and he did not want to leave her, she said.
"I thought we were finished he [O'Connell] was coming so fast . . . My husband said, `We'll go together," said Ms Foley, adding that Mr O'Connell tried to swerve up the ditch but failed and the front wheel of the tractor came down on the car.
Ms Foley was able to get out, but her husband was trapped.
"My husband was still alive. He was screaming, asking me to lift the tractor off. The wheel kept settling on the car," she said.
"He said, `I'm still alive. Can you get it off?' I tried to lift it off but of course I couldn't," said Ms Foley, adding that Mr O'Connell went to get help and the emergency services were called, but Mr Foley died in the car before he could be rescued.
Ms Foley strongly denied suggestions that her husband had failed to stop and that it was Mr O'Connell who had done most to stop.
"If he had time to stop, why didn't he do it? Why did he kill my husband. My husband is dead," she said.
Mr O'Connell told the court that he was doing 15 m.p.h. to 16 m.p.h. at the time and certainly no more than 18 m.p.h. adding that Mr Foley had not rounded the bend and stopped but was still moving when the crash happened.
"As I entered the bend, I saw a white car coming towards me. The car was moving. We both entered the bend together," he said, adding that there was room on Mr Foley's side if he had swerved in close to the ditch.
"I immediately kept in on my left-hand side and pressed on the brakes of the tractor and applied the brake on the trailer," he said, adding that the front right wheel of the tractor collided with Mr Foley's car and went up on the bonnet.
Mr O'Connell, who was driving the tractor for a contractor employed on his family farm, jumped out of the vehicle and raced around to Ms Foley's side of the car and helped her out before going for help.
Cross-examined, Mr O'Connell was adamant that he was not travelling too fast and that the crash happened on the bend. "I was driving at a reasonable speed for that road," he said. The case continues.