A TRUCK driver who drove through a stop-sign junction, seriously injuring the father of Ireland, Munster, and Lions rugby Conor Murray, was previously convicted of drink driving, hit and run, and careless driving, a court heard.
Gerry Murray (70) was cycling home at around 3pm on February 7, 2023, when truck driver Seamus Hanrahan, who was pulling a slurry tanker, struck him, resulting in Mr Murray sustaining a significant brain injury.
Mr Murray, married to former Irish international squash player Barbara Murray, had to re-learn how to walk and talk properly, through a gruelling regime of medical therapies, Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard.
Mr Hanrahan (53), of Kilmore, Granagh, County Limerick, pleaded guilty to one count of careless driving causing serious bodily harm to Mr Murray on February 7, 2023.
Prosecuting barrister, Lily Buckley BL, told Hanrahan’s sentencing hearing that the married father of three from a well-known pig farming family was travelling within the speed limit at approximately 8-10km/h along a slip road to the N20 on the day.
Ms Buckley said Hanrahan “didn’t stop when he should have” at the junction, despite road markings and a red stop sign indicating road users must stop before moving out onto the main road.
She described as a “crucial independent witness” taxi driver Jim Lynch, who told Gardaí at the scene that Mr Hanrahan didn’t stop at the junction.
Ms Buckley said Mr Lynch told Gardaí he saw Mr Murray’s bike being “thrown out onto the road … he was not talking, he was just lying on the side of the road”.
Hanrahan, who passed a Garda roadside breathalyser test for alcohol and drugs, remained at the scene and put his coat over Mr Murray, the court heard. He told Gardaí he stopped at the junction before looking left and right, and that, when he did not see anyone coming, he drove out onto the main road.
He told Gardaí he “heard a bang”, parked up his rig on the side of the road, and discovered Mr Murray lying on the ground.
Ms Buckley argued that Hanrahan’s statement about him looking left and right “did not appear” to tally with Mr Lynch’s Garda statement.
Mr Murray was treated at the scene by paramedics and rushed by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick (UHL) where doctors diagnosed him with a “severe traumatic brain injury”, a fractured skull, and bleeds to his brain.
Mr Murray’s condition deteriorated and he was transferred to Cork University Hospital (CUH), where he was put into a medically induced coma and monitored in the hospital’s intensive care unit for seven days.
Ms Buckley said Mr Murray, who was present in court, was wearing a helmet at the time of the collision, which was “extensively damaged”.
In a victim impact statement read out in court, Mr Murray said the first he knew of the collision was when he woke out of his coma in hospital two and half weeks afterwards.
“The next five weeks were spent learning to walk and doing all the basic tasks in life. I have constant tinnitus and have lost my hearing in my left ear,” Mr Murray said.
Mr Murray said he missed his son’s wedding abroad because doctors advised him “not to fly because of the fractures to my skull, so I missed what was a major family event”.
The court heard Hanrahan had convictions for road traffic matters, including an offence of dangerous driving reduced to careless driving; hit and run; failing to remain at the scene of a collision; and drunk driving.
Hanrahan’s defence barrister, Amy Nix BL, asked the court to consider in mitigation that he has family responsibilities that require him to be able to drive and that he is an “upstanding hard working member of his local community”.
“He is carrying the guilt with him everywhere, he wishes he could wind back the clock and prevent Mr Murray’s injuries. He has held up his hands, he wishes to apologise publicly to Mr Murray.”
Judge Colin Daly said he had “much to consider” and adjourned sentencing to May 2, remanding Mr Hanrahan on bail.
