A CLARE woman wept in court yesterday after she was cleared of the dangerous driving causing the death of former inter-county footballer Declan Hayes.
At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday evening, a jury took just 22 minutes to unanimously clear Lisa Clancy (25), of Inchiquin Park, Corofin, of the charge of dangerous driving causing the death of Declan Hayes (43), Doonmore, Doonbeg, at Toonagh, Tulla, on October 26th last year.
Flanked by relatives, Ms Clancy wept after Judge Donagh McDonagh told the court: “I wholeheartedly agree with the verdict”.
In the one-day case, the jury was told that Ms Clancy pulled out of the driveway of her boyfriend’s house at 7.20am in her car and collided with Mr Hayes’s 1,000cc motorcycle which was travelling from Ennis to Tulla.
Marie Doyle from east Clare, a witness to the aftermath, told the court that weather conditions on the morning “were awful”.
“You couldn’t see anything in the distance,” she said. “It was foggy, extremely dark and raining.”
In an interview with gardaí, Ms Clancy said that as she pulled out of the driveway, she looked to her left towards Tulla and to her right towards Ennis.
“I saw a single light on a sweeping bend. I have pulled out of that gate on so many mornings, I judged that I had more than enough time to exit safely.”
She added: “I just started pulling out so I just remember a big light really close and then the impact. It felt like time was frozen. It was like a train.
“The light was just getting closer and that was it.”
Ms Clancy told gardaí she was not sure what she had collided with, “it had been so sudden”.
Lorcan Connolly, for Ms Clancy, asked the jury not to criminalise his client. He said the speed of the motorcycle “is the big unknown” in the case.
“There is no aggravating factor in this case,” Mr Connolly added. “Ms Clancy did not have alcohol consumed. Her car was roadworthy. She was not speeding. Accidents do happen and this was one of those cases where Ms Clancy ought not to be criminalised.”
He said that Ms Clancy had travelled just over 10 metres over 2.4 to 2.6 seconds across the road when the collision occurred.
“Everyone in this case, deceased and accused, are decent people of this county.
“The kernel of the case is whether Ms Clancy’s driving was dangerous and I submit that it wasn’t.”
Mr Hayes represented Clare in inter-county football and represented Ireland in athletics.
The Doonbeg native won four county championship medals with Doonbeg.
He also represented Clare at junior and senior level in the early 1990s and was active in the Doonbeg Drama Group.
Mr Hayes died less than a mile from where he worked on the construction of a new Clare County Board GAA training facility at Caherlohan near Tulla.
The fatal incident followed months after Mr Hayes had recovered from a serious crash in August 2009, which had left him in hospital for several months.
