An man who died after suffering fatal injuries following a road traffic accident was buried before the coroner for Donegal had been informed of his death.
An inquest into the death of 82 year old Tadgh McGinley, of Letterkenny, heard he died following spinal chord injuries he suffered after a crash eleven days before he passed away.
However, an ‘oversight’ meant that coroner Dr Denis McCauley was never informed of the death until he had been buried.
Mr McGinley, late of Larkin’s Lane, died in Letterkenny University Hospital on October 31, 2015, eleven days after he was involved in a road traffic collision near Woodlands national school in Letterkenny.
The inquest was told that the late Mr McGinley only had one remaining relative, a son, and that he lived somewhere in Canada.
However, Garda attempts to contact him and to tell him about his father’s inquest had not been successful.
He said Mr McGinley’s death was considered “an unnatural death” but due to the oversight he was buried without an autopsy taking place but he added it was a situation he believed would not happen again.
He said he had the right to order and exhumation of the body but said in this case it “served no good purpose” as they had details of the the injuries received.
Witness John Friel said he was driving his Tesco van on a delivery 11.20am when he was stopped at temporary traffic lights near the school when he felt a significant impact on his van from behind.
When got out to see a red Opel Corsa being driven by Mr McGinley wedged under the back of his van and then it reverse back onto a grass verge.
There was one female passenger, who was uninjured, and Mr McGinley complained of a sore neck.
Mr Friel said he did not notice if Mr McGinley was wearing a seatbelt.
Teresa Boyce said she was a neighbour of Mr McGinley’s and she was getting a lift to a medical appointment on the day when the crash happened. She said she warned him to slow down as they approached the van but that he was driving at “normal” speed.
Garda Paul McGuire said there was a reasonable amount of damage to the car but the driver remained conscious and coherent until brought to hospital.
Dr McCauley said an x-ray showed Mr McGinley fractured two vertebrae at the top of his neck and this affected his spinal cord, which in turn affect his respiration. Over the course of a number of days he began to deteriorate and eventually was unable to breath by himself and died on October 31, 2015.
Pathologist Dr Gerry O’Dowd who was at the inquest said his his opinion was that the spinal cord damage was the “critical injury”.
The jury returned a verdict of a death from a spinal injury as the result of of a road traffic accident.