Killeigh woman drove for 8 kms on wrong side of motorway

The circumstances of a fatal head-on collision where a Killeigh woman drove against traffic on the M6 motorway from Athlone to Moate is "the ultimate nightmare" a motorist could face, according to a coroner. Offaly Coroner Brian Mahon made the comments during the inquest on Monday into the death of 66-year-old Helen Gonoude of Derrygolan, Killeigh, Co. Offaly. The inquest heard Mrs Gonoude had "a moderate to high alcohol level" when she travelled for around eight kilometres against the flow of traffic in the fast lane of the M6 in Co. Westmeath. Although Gardaí and motorists made a number of attempts to halt her progress, Mrs Gonoude continued along the M6 until she collided head-on with a car near Moate. The driver of the second car, Galway native Delia Flaherty who was in her 30s, died three days later at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin on July 1. In his deposition, Mrs Gonoude's son Joe said his mother had visited his home in Rochfortbridge on the afternoon of the accident on June 28 last year. "This was my mother's first time to drive to the house," he explained. At around 1.40pm, Mrs Gonoude decided to leave, "she drove away, she gave us a wave," he stated. It is thought Mrs Gonoude missed her exit and continued on the M6, ending up in Athlone where she joined the motorway in the wrong direction at Garrycastle. Sarah Brennan was driving on the motorway about two kilometres on the Dublin side of Athlone at around 2.30pm when she saw a blue car driving towards her in the overtaking lane. Although she took evasive action and then beeped her horn at the car, Ms Brennan said the woman driving, "never braked, slowed or looked up at me." In Ms Brennan's estimation, the car was travelling towards her at around 100 kilometres per hour. "I looked in my rear view mirror and could see her going on, she never left the fast lane," she told the court Garda Elaine Conlon had been making her way to Athlone on the M6 when she "suddenly noticed cars in front braking." The cars had been trying to avoid an oncoming vehicle which had slowed due to the heavy traffic. "I ran to the window and banged on the window....I told her to stop," Garda Conlon said in her evidence. "She looked at me but she didn't make contact with me, she just drove on." Mullingar based Garda Eva O'Connor was working in the area when she got a call about a car heading east in the westbound lane. Keeping the traffic behind her at a distance of about 70 meters, she drove along the motorway with blue lights flashing until she saw the navy Volkswagen polo approach. Garda O'Connor stopped and got out of the car, making sure the traffic behind had also stopped. "I signalled to the driver to stop. However, as the car got closer it was not reducing speed," she said, adding: "This lady did not look at me, she drove around me." When the vehicle neared the traffic behind the patrol car a member of the public attempted to speak with the driver. However, the car again manoeuvred around the traffic and continued driving in the wrong direction. Just over half a kilometre away Elizabeth McGuinness and her husband William were in a lorry driving towards Athlone. "I saw a car overtake us on the right hand lane. The next thing both cars collided headlong and seemed to jump in the air," she told gardaí. William McGuinness witnessed the two cars jump about three feet in the air. He used an extinguisher to put out a fire in Mrs Gonoude's car before getting into the back of the second car and comforting Ms Flaherty until the ambulance arrived. Sgt Dermot Monaghan was asked to investigating the collision but was later removed from the task while the Garda Ombudsman began an investigation. Once that investigation ended he was reassigned to the job. He said both cars had sustained extensive damage at the site of the collision between Junction 6 and Junction 7 near Moate. The two women were removed to the Midland Regional Hospital at Tullamore where Mrs Gonoude was pronounced dead. Ms Flaherty was subsequently transferred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. Pathologist Dr Miriam Walshe conducted a post mortem on Helen Gonoude at the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore on June 29. While death was due to injuries and trauma consistent with a road traffic accident, Dr Walshe said Mrs Gonoude's blood alcohol level may have been a contributory factor as it was, "high enough to cause problems with driving ability." Coroner Brian Mahon told jurors not to "stray into the area of culpability or blame" but to "confine it to the facts and medical evidence." "The facts of this are simple enough to deduce jurors. What happened clearly this lady entered the motorway on the wrong side and was involved in a collision sometime after that," he remarked. Mr Mahon described the accident as "horrific in how it occurred" and said the circumstances amounted to the "ultimate nightmare" any motorist could face. He pointed to some "unusual aspects" including the fact that when warned about her driving, "she seemed unable to comprehend that she was in an extremely dangerous situation." "She does appear to have never driven on a motorway before," he remarked. He commented on the evidence of "a moderate to high alcohol level in her system, quite high for a female and certainly many multiples of the limit." Mr Mahon commended the actions of the gardaí and members of the public who attempted to intervene before the accident. He extended his sympathy to Mrs Gonoude's family who had "suffered enormously" and also to the family of Ms Flaherty. The inquest found Mrs Gonoude had died as a result of multiple thoracic, abdominal and limb trauma consistent with a road traffic collision.