A Corofin woman’s been cleared of the dangerous driving causing death of former Clare inter-county football Declan Hayes.
The jury at Ennis Circuit Court took just under half an hour to unanimously clear 25 year old Lisa Clancy of Inchiquin Park of the charge.
Hayes, of Doonmore Doonbeg, died in a fatal accident on the Tulla Road at Toonagh, a mile from where he worked on the construction of a new Clare County Board GAA training facility at Caherlohan
Flanked by her relatives Lisa Clancy wept at Ennis Circuit Court yesterday when Judge Donagh McDonagh said that he wholeheartedly agreed with the verdict delivered in the case.
The one day proceedings heard that the 25 year old pulled out of the driveway of her boyfriends home at 7.20 am on the 26th of October last year and collided with Declan Hayes’s motorcycle which was travelling from Ennis to Tulla.
A witness to the aftermath described the weather conditions that day as foggy extremely dark and raining.
In garda interviews Ms Clancy said that when she pulled out of the driveway she looked to both sides and saw a light on a sweeping bend but judged that she had enough time to pull out as she had done many times before.
She then remembered a light really close and then the impact.
Council for the 25 year old asked the court not to criminalise her as there were no aggravating factors in the case and accidents do happen.
After 22 minutes of deliberating the jury returned a not guilty verdict.
