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Accidental verdict for driver killed after council fails to maintain tree (14 April 2014)
Date: 14/04/2014
An inquest has heard how a council employee was killed when a tree left to rot by the council was snapped in two during a storm ? and crushed him to death after falling on his car.
Father-of-three Donal Drohan, 51, from Harrow in northwest London was killed when the trunk of the poplar tree fell on his car on 28 October last year. Mr Drohan was driving alone in his car through Watford at 6.50am, when the tree sheared 10 feet from the ground and toppled onto his car.
The operations manager for Harrow Council sustained fatal head and spinal injuries in the incident. Staff from a nearby DIY store tried in vain to free Mr Drohan, but were unable to move the tree from the car.
Mr Drohan was finally freed after a fire crew cut the trunk away from the car.
At the inquest into Mr Drohan’s death on Tuesday (08/04/14), PC Rob Jackson was shown CCTV footage of the scene of the incident. He told the inquest that the incident had happened “very quickly”.
Mr Drohan was one of four people killed after winds reached 100mph across the UK.
However, the poplar tree which killed Mr Drohan had not been inspected by Hertfordshire County Council because of confusion over who was responsible for it, the inquest at Hatfield was told.
The Lombardy poplar ? which stood 40 feet high ? was sited on land owned by Hertfordshire County Council. However, its exact location made it unclear whether the council or the Highways Agency was responsible for inspecting and maintaining it.
As a result, the poplar tree had not been inspected regularly by health and safety experts.
However, it was later established that the tree was the responsibility of Hertfordshire County Council.
The inquest was told that, after the tree was inspected following the incident in which Mr Drohan was killed, it was found to have fungal decay. Tree expert Arthur Clarke told the inquest that the decay could have weakened the trunk of the poplar, which snapped in high winds.
The Hatfield coroner Edward Thomas recorded a verdict of accidental death. He said that it was not possible to say whether regular inspection of the tree might have prevented the incident and added that Mr Drohan would have died instantly.
"I cannot begin to imagine how awful this has been for his family. The sudden awfulness of this is unimaginable," said Mr Thomas.
A spokesman for Hertfordshire County Council said after the inquest:
“This was a tragic accident and we’d like to pass on our sympathies to Mr Drohan’s family.”
Duncan Lewis Personal Injury Solicitors
Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of personal injury solicitors and can advise on how to make a no win no fee compensation claim for injuries sustained in Accidents in Public Places or a Public Liability Claim.
Personal injury claimants usually have three years from the date of an injury or incident to make a claim ? and Duncan Lewis personal injury solicitors can also advise families on making Fatal Injury Claims.
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