High Court reporters
The family of a US police officer who died in a road collision in Co Wexford along with his parents and brother have settled a High Court action over his death for €310,000.
The American visitors were in Ireland for a funeral when the crash happened seven years ago. The group was in a hire car and died after a U-turn was attempted on the main Rosslare to Waterford road outside New Ross, Co Wexford.
Senior counsel John Kilfeather, instructed by Caroline McLaughlin solicitor, told the High Court it was a very tragic accident
Stephen Alexander (49), a father of two, was a decorated police officer operating out of the Bolingbrook Police Department, which is in a southwestern suburb of Chicago. The proceedings, Mr Kilfeather said, were over the death of Stephen Alexander and also for nervous shock.
Stephen Alexander’s father, Douglas Alexander Sr (75), his mother Lily Alexander (75) and brother Douglas Alexander Jr (52), also from Chicago, all died in the collision with an articulated lorry on the N25 on December 4th, 2017.
The High Court proceedings were brought by Stephen Alexander’s widow, Lynn Alexander of Lemont, Illinois in the United States against car rental company Executive Trust Ltd, with registered offices at Northwood Business Park, Northwood, Santry, Co Dublin.
The company owned the car in which Stephen Alexander was travelling as a passenger and which was driven by his brother Douglas Alexander Jr at the time of the accident.
The settlement is without an admission of liability.
In the proceedings, it was claimed that the car crossed or attempted to cross the path of an oncoming vehicle, causing the collision and that a dangerous manoeuvre had allegedly been executed on the public roadway.
It was further claimed there was a failure to wait until traffic had passed in safety before crossing or attempting to cross the path of traffic.
An inquest in 2019 held into the death of the four Americans heard the group had travelled from the United States to attend the funeral of Lily's sister, Winifred, at Cushinstown, outside New Ross and less than 1km from the scene of the accident.
A garda gave evidence that the Alexanders had flown over from Chicago for the funeral, and they had been travelling in convoy behind relatives of theirs when the crash occurred.
The garda said both cars were doing a U-turn on the road and that while one of the cars completed the manoeuvre, the car being driven by Douglas Alexander Jnr was hit by an articulated truck while attempting the same move.
All four died at the scene after their car became trapped underneath the lorry, which had jack-knifed as it attempted to avoid them.
The lorry driver, who was driving 10km under the speed limit, said he saw a car shooting across from the left-hand side maybe 50m in front of him, and then a second car came out. He slammed on the brakes but the collision happened.
The coroner noted the driver of the car would have been at a major disadvantage having only arrived from the US a few hours previously and would not have had much rest.
The coroner said that being used to driving on the other side of the road, he may have been expecting traffic coming from the left rather than from the right, and that the driver of the lorry had done nothing wrong.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death in each case.
