A Kilkenny Circuit Court jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict this week in what was described as “a most unusual dangerous driving case”.
Skeoughvosteen resident Stephen Magi (50 ) appeared for dangerous driving which caused the death of 24-year-old Tipperary woman Michelle Kenny.
The jury of eight women and four men heard that on December 16, 2005 at Kilrush, Freshford, Co Kilkenny the trailer Mr Magi was towing behind his Izuzu jeep loaded with 24 long iron bars came away from its hitch, crossed into oncoming traffic and collided with Ms Kenny’s Ford Escort. Despite the help of a nurse on the scene, Ms Kenny died a short time after the collision in which the iron bars plunged through her windscreen folding the bonnet of her car up like a roll of carpet.
Twelve witnesses including several motorists travelling behind Mr Magi, a forensic car inspector, firemen and gardaí as well as a Department of Environment (DOE ) mechanic gave evidence.
State Barrister Patrick Treacy told the jury that on that day, Mr Magi picked up his jeep from a DOE test in Tipperary and attached the trailer carrying the bars used for laying footpaths to his hitch. Mr Magi, a site foreman at the time for Bluebird Construction in Kilmanagh Co. Limerick, had been asked to tow the trailer to Dublin for a job in Lucan. His construction manager, Borris native Patrick Fleming, told the jury he had helped Mr Magi attach the trailer. “Once you hear it clicking into place, you presume that’s it,” he told the jury. They both secured the load with straps.
Metal failure expert Martin Horan said that the hitching mechanism at the back of Mr Magi’s jeep was faulty. “The towing arrangement consists of two components, jaws and a ball pin,” he told the jury displaying the hitch removed from Mr Magi’s jeep. “A lever used to lock the ball pin in place displays a locked word when locked and a free word when open. This is the primary locking feature. A pigtail pin is then inserted into the bottom of the ball pin as a secondary locking mechanism. The lever on Mr Magi’s jeep is seized in the open position and the pigtail pin was not present,” he said.
Garda Luke Kavanagh of Kilkenny Garda Station said on examining Mr Magi’s jeep at the scene, he noticed the ball-pin had come out of the jaws of Mr Magi’s hitch and lodged in the tow-bar of the trailer, allowing the trailer to become loose and make its way onto the wrong side of the road and the straps securing the load were still attached to the bars, now lodged in Ms Kenny’s car.
The jury were also told that Mr Magi’s jeep had near nil visibility through its windows and there had been nothing connecting the jeep and trailer’s braking mechanisms.
After three days in the trial, Mr Treacy told the jury that during their vote, they could be certain Mr Magi’s hitching mechanism had been faulty, there was no emergency chain to stop the trailer, there was no bulkhead on the trailer to stop the box irons from shooting forward and Mr Magi drove his jeep with almost nil visibility. Defence counsel Mr Joseph O’Kelly told the jury that Mr Magi, who did not own the jeep but used it for work, trusted the fact that it had been inspected by a safety expert. “This could be you or I or anyone who drives a vehicle,” Mr O’Kelly told the jury. “This was just a man doing his job when suddenly, catastrophically, this very unusual detachment occurred. It is a most unusual dangerous driving case.” After deliberating for an hour and a half, the jury complained of being locked in an 11-to-one vote. Told their verdict at that stage must be unanimous, they were instructed to retire again and consider their votes. Just shortly before the two-hour 10 minute mandatory voting time, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict. Mr Magi will be sentenced in November at the next Circuit Court sittings.
