Postman hit by train avoids dangerous driving charge

CLOSE CALL The scene at Ballyvary, near Castlebar, where an An Post van was struck by a train. ?Pic: Keith Heneghan/Phocus

Postman hit by train avoids dangerous driving charge


Postman lucky to be alive after his van was struck by a train and flung into a neighbouring field

A postman who was seriously injured after his van was in collision with a train has had a dangerous driving charge against him dismissed.
John Canning of Ballyvary, Castlebar appeared before Westport District Court sitting in Castlebar on Thursday last charged with dangerous driving in relation to the collision, which occurred shortly after 9.30am on February 12, 2014.
A train travelling from Ballina to Manulla Junction struck Mr Canning’s An Post van as he attempted to cross the Corraun level crossing in Ballyvary. Mr Canning’s van ended up in an adjoining field.
The first person on the scene was a passer-by, Anthony Roache, who told the court he saw Mr Canning staggering away from his van before falling into a ditch. Mr Roache said he had to get him out of the ditch and pin him against the van for his own safety, to keep him as still as possible, until an ambulance arrived.
Among the injuries suffered by Mr Canning were six broken ribs, a fractured eye socket, fractured nose and damage to his cruciate knee ligament. He was in hospital for one week after the incident.
Mr Canning told gardaí in an interview on April 18, 2014 that he remembers very little about the morning in question, but ‘I remember seeing the train out of the corner of me eye within a foot of me’.

‘In so much pain’
He said he then woke up after the collision in his van with letters ‘all over the place’, but it ‘didn’t dawn on me that I’d been hit by a train’. He told Garda Peter Clancy that he was ‘in so much pain’ that he set off waking in the wrong direction before being tended to by Anthony Roache and Michelle McHale.
Train driver Aidan Slattery told the court that as the train travelled towards the Corraun crossing, he saw a white van on the left side approaching the crossing. He said he sounded the horn and then lost sight of the van before it ‘reappeared in front of me’, and they collided. There were six people in total on the train, and none were injured.
Under cross examination from defending solicitor Kevin Bourke, Mr Slattery said that at the time of the collision, he had been driving as a fully qualified train driver for ten months and that he had trained for six months before that. He said he had another driver, Fergus Sweeney, with him that day, as he was getting ‘route knowledge’ for the Ballina to Athlone routes. He said he had been on this route ‘six or seven times’.
He said he had sounded the horn in time, but this was disputed by Mr Bourke.
Mr Slattery said the weather conditions were poor on the day. He told the court he was travelling at 80km/h at the time of impact and that he tried to apply the brakes as soon as the collision occurred.
Sergeant Gabriel McLoughlin told the court the train had stopped 586 metres past the junction, and that there was ‘severe damage’ to the drivers’ side and right wing of the van. Follow-up tests on the van showed it to be roadworthy at the time of impact.
Not in a public place
Defending solicitor Kevin Bourke applied to Judge Mary Devins to dismiss the case after the prosecution finished their case, on four grounds.
He argued that the dangerous driving case had not been proven; that there was third party responsibility for leaving the railway crossing gates open before Mr Canning arrived; that the road in question is a private road leading to four houses and therefore the charge of dangerous driving in a public place was not valid. He also raised the question of the delay in the serving of the summons on Mr Canning.
Judge Mary Devins said she ruled with the prosecution that the manner of the driving was dangerous. She said Mr Canning is a local postman who is aware of the crossing’s location and she inferred that he is also aware of the train times.
However, she dismissed the charge on the basis of that the dangerous driving did not occur  in a public place. She ruled that the onus is on the prosecution to prove the offence took place in a public place. She said the prosecution had not adduced any proof in this regard and referred to case law.
As a consequence, Judge Devins dismissed the charge.