'To see a body bag in which our whole world lay lifeless is something that we can never unsee'
Clutching a body bag with the remains of their beloved on a road in East Cork, a Wexford family feel that they may never actually leave that spot. To get a phone call at about 9.30pm on a Thursday night that your dad has been knocked down and killed on a road at Castleredmond, Midleton, Co Cork, was instantly devastating and unreal. It couldn’t be true, could it? Health and safety. That was Ger Jones’ bread and butter. The 61-year-old from Wexford town was in Midleton for the working week as part of his job as the health and safety officer at the Jameson Distillery.He simply couldn’t have been killed — his wife Caroline had only just sent him photos on the family WhatsApp group telling him his twin granddaughters had got their first walking shoes. He doted on them. He texted, and you can almost hear the unmistakable Wexford accent: “Looking gorgeous, girls. Can’t wait to take yous out on the green to play.” The little ones’ mother, Leah, said he never got to go out on the green with the twins in their new shoes. He will never get to see them growing up and they were robbed of their loving grandad. The granddaughters are so young. His grandsons are a bit older and have had a little more time with him. Leah recalls: “Having to tell the boys their grandad was killed on the road was the most soul-destroying thing we ever endured.
Their cries still haunt us to this day. It impacted their whole lives, it took a toll on their childhood.
"Not a day goes by that we don't hear one of the boys telling the twins all about their grandad and teaching them the things he had thought them.” Ger Jones with his grandchildren Harley and Rylee. And it wasn’t only the grandchildren. This has been a devastation for the wider family. “We are forever haunted by the night that we got the devastating news. My sister Hayley was at home when the guards called to the door and told her that her dad had been killed in a hit-and-run in Midleton at 9.15 that night. She collapsed to the floor with the shock, screaming in disbelief. "She tried to make the dreaded phone call to myself and my mam, who were in my house after putting the kids to bed, but struggled to get her words out between her inconsolable crying and shock. "One of the guards took the phone to help her, and broke the news that we never imagined would come knocking on our door: 'I’m sorry, your father is dead'.“It was the last thing we expected to hear only a few hours after him speaking on the phone with my mam in one of the many phone calls he'd make to us daily. "He ended that conversation as he always did saying: 'I’ll give you a call in a while, Car. Love yous.' But we never got that call. That was the last time my mam heard her husband’s voice.” A life cut short. His family distraught. Workmates in the distillery shocked by the loss of Ger in the place he called his second home — Midleton. In Wexford town, some factories closed for the funeral in March 2023. As a clubman of Northend United FC and a referee in the county, the hearse stopped outside the club on his final journey, where there was a minute’s silence and a ringing round of applause. A moment of pride for the family in the middle of their devastation.After 9pm on the night of March 2, 2023, following a few drinks with Midleton friends, Ger went to the boot of his car, retrieved his hi-vis vest and walked home to his B&B. How many times will the narrative of a fatal accident on the roads be that the person who was killed did all the right things? Witnesses who had seen him a short time before his death ruled out intoxication or any idea he might have staggered. He didn’t. In just one awful aspect of the story of his last moments, his loved ones are also left with the agonising thought that Ger actually arrived at the B&B perfectly safely that night. But when he got there, he discovered he was without his phone and reckoned it must have fallen from his pocket on the walk. He decided to retrace his steps. That was when he lost his life. As it happened, 60-year-old Martin Donnelly, of Castlemartyr, originally from Ballintotis in East Cork, was also on the road that night. He was minding his elderly father that evening, having recently bought him a car. Martin Donnelly drove the car himself that night, thinking he was insured to drive it as well as his own. He wasn’t. If only that was the worst of it. So, he drove in to collect his brother from a pub to bring him home. Just as there was no evidence that the deceased man staggered on the road or showed any sign of intoxication, there was no indication of the accused having consumed any intoxicant. As the driver rounded the bend at Castleredmond, it would have been possible to see Ger Jones in his hi-vis vest at a distance of 130m. Nonetheless, there was an impact and he was struck by the bonnet and windscreen of the car. Sergeant Brian Larkin, who investigated the case, said Martin Donnelly’s brother urged him to stop but he would not listen. He drove on, leaving Ger Jones on the road. He then drove out of his way to take a circuitous route home. It was 10 hours before he presented himself at Midleton Garda Station.In a tortuous coincidence, Martin Donnelly had knocked down and killed his uncle at the same location in 2001, an occasion when no prosecution was brought against him, where his uncle walked on to the road as Mr Donnelly was driving a truck. This was the reason he gave for leaving Ger Jones on the road. He said he panicked because of what happened in 2001. Judge Sinead Behan suggested this was all the more reason he should have stayed. In the moments immediately after this collision, as the late Mr Jones lay on the road, prone, there was another collision, when a second car swerved in an effort to avoid him and a third collision when a third car rolled over him. Both of these motorists remained at the scene to render assistance and alert the emergency services. Mr Jones was pronounced dead at the scene. Jailing the accused for four years, with half of that sentence suspended, Judge Sinead Behan said: “Society cannot allow accidents like this to happen where a person leaves the scene.” She said a motorist had not just a legal responsibility, but a human responsibility to render assistance. While the evidence was of knocking the deceased down and leaving the scene, the charge to which Martin Donnelly pleaded guilty was one of failing to remain at the scene of an incident to provide medical assistance or call the emergency services. The particular charge is a powerful piece of legislation that can carry a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison. It obviates the necessity to prove beyond doubt the cause of a fatal incident in circumstances where there may be no independent witness or CCTV. Travelling up from Wexford that night, the Jones family knew little more than that the father of their family was dead and there had been a road traffic accident. It couldn’t be worse.And yet, it did get worse when they got there. They began to pick up on the details of what occurred. Someone knocked him down. Whoever it was fled the scene, leaving their beloved on the road. Two more cars passed. One swerved to avoid him. The last one rolled over him. Added to the shock, trauma and grief, the Jones family was now thrown into the mental agonies of how their father lost his life. The account given by Leah of their arrival at the scene is not easy to read: “The road was totally cordoned off, there was debris and blood splattered across the road, and the tent in which our dad's lifeless body lay all night in the cold was still on the road along with the guards, an undertaker and other members of the emergency services.
The blood drained from our faces, we felt sick to the core. I asked my uncle to stop the car and I ran over to the scene. I screamed and begged the guards to tell me if our dad was still there.
They told her his remains were in the undertaker’s vehicle. They were asked if they’d like to touch the stretcher there his remains lay and to say their goodbyes. What Leah described next surely shatters the bloodless euphemism 'road traffic accident'. “Opening up the back of the vehicle to see a body bag in which our whole world lay lifeless, covered from head to toe is something that we can never unsee. "That picture is etched into our memories for ever. We will never forget how our mam held onto that stretcher where her soulmate, best friend, her provider, her rock in life, her whole world lay still. "He was so strong, so healthy, they still had so much left to enjoy, so many places to see, they were supposed to grow old together. It was just downright cruel.” Leah asked others to imagine what it was like to know your father or husband or brother lay in a body bag, wondering what state he was in.“We’re still there, holding on to a body bag which held what was left our dad, our mam’s loving husband. I don’t think we ever left that road.”
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