A Cork court has been told of the catastrophic injuries and life changing impact that resulted when a truck hit a cyclist out training near Macroom.
A triathlete who was hit by a truck while out training on his bike in Cork was left paralysed and suicidal, a court hearing has been told.
Vincent O’Driscoll, a 31-year-old from Gurranabraher in Co Cork, was not expected to survive being hit by a haulier’s truck carrying a 42 tonne lumber load in August of last year.
The wheels of the truck driven by Tim Walsh, also from Cork, ran over Mr O’Driscoll after knocking him from his bike. The vehicle was attempting to overtake him on a hill on the N22 two miles from Macroom on August 7th last.
Cork Circuit Criminal Court was told Mr O’Driscoll was left with a range of catastrophic injuries, the most severe of which was a severed spinal cord, resulting in his paralysis.
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He also sustained a fractured pelvis, two broken hips, broken legs and broken ankles. As well as a number of more minor injuries to his head and shoulder, Mr O’Driscoll also suffered failure of the liver and kidney and suffered bowel and bladder damage.
In a victim impact statement he said despite his injuries the physiological side of his condition was perhaps worse. He used to be happy but had contemplated suicide and had woken from a coma to a new body he was not familiar with.
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He was now a different person and he was unsure if he would ever get over what had happened.
“I’ve talked to my psychologist and she reckons that I’m not depressed but that I’m grieving for the body I had and the life I had,” he said in his statement read to the court.
He urged drivers to be patient, saying the unwillingness of the truck driver who hit him to give him space had radically changed his life.
He continued to suffer from pain which meant that after a period of two or three hours in a wheelchair he had to lie down.
He said his injuries would shorten his life expectancy by between 15 to 30 years. He wears a colostomy bag because his bowel is damaged and a catheter because his bladder was damaged and it was unclear if that would continue for the rest of his life.
Truck driver Mr Walsh, Moneen, Glanworth, Co Cork, had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious injury to Mr O’Driscoll.
The court was told a Department of the Environment check on his vehicle two months before the incident had revealed 70 defects, including to the braking system; with no effort having been made to fix them.
Judge Sean Ó Donnabháin agreed to adjourn the case to July 30th to allow for a psychiatric report be presented on Mr Walsh.
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