Man (65) died from natural causes while cycling along N17 in Mayo, inquest told

A verdict of death from natural causes has been returned by the Coroner for the District of Mayo, Dr. Eleanor Fitzgerald, at an inquest into the death of a 65-year-old man who was found unconscious beside his bicycle along the N17 at Lurga, Charlestown, last February.

Simon Gannon, Cloonamna, Kilmovee, Ballaghaderreen, who was described to the inquest as a scientific archaeologist, was discovered in an unresponsive state in a pool of blood just after midday on February 28 last by Stephen Towey, an employee of the business park at Knock airport.

In a deposition to gardaí read at an inquest in Ballina, Mr. Towey outlined that he was travelling on the N17 in the direction of Charlestown when he saw what he initially thought was 'rubbish' on the side of the road.

As he got closer he discovered it was a person lying on the hard shoulder and his foot and wheel of the bike were on the road. He was wearing a helmet and noticed his helmet had two dents in it.

Two of Mr. Towey’s work colleagues, Andrew Cahill and Pauline Horan, arrived and assisted at the scene. CPR was administered before an ambulance crew took over.

Mr. Gannon was brought to Mayo University Hospital. A neuro-surgical opinion was sought from Beaumont Hospital but he was not deemed fit for transfer for treatment there.

The deceased was admitted to intensive care for monitoring. He passed away in ICU on March 15.

A brother-in-law of the deceased, Cyril Dennemont, a UK based solicitor, attended the inquest and raised questions on behalf of the Gannon family.

Mr. Dennemont took issue with a report by John Naughton, a forensic collision investigator, after the report was read into evidence.

In his report Garda Naughton said there was no defect on the bicycle that could have led to the collision.

He suggested that maybe Mr. Gannon cycled into a gully and potentially lost control of the bicycle.

There was no evidence to suggest that any other vehicle was involved, Garda Naughton stated.

At this stage, Coroner Fitzgerald said the forensic collision investigator’s report was postulating that maybe a gully was involved but nobody knew for sure.

Mr. Dennemont agreed that the gully theory was a supposition.

He went on to say that Mr. Gannon was an accomplished cyclist of many, many years experience and it would have been highly improbable for him to have lost control.

Mr. Dennemont noted that the road at the location was a 100 kmph carriageway running downhill and suggested a high speed vehicle travelling downhill could have pushed him off the road.

“Simon was not a casual rider,” Mr. Dennemont continued. “He knew every part of that route.”

Coroner Fitzgerald outlined that a post-mortem determined the cause of death as brain herniation due to inter-cerebral haemorrhage and minor cranial trauma.

She said that on the basis of probability an inter-cerebral haemorrhage occurred causing Mr. Gannon to fall.

The brain haemorrhage was very extensive and transfer to Beaumont was not possible and not advised.

She said the brain haemorrhage which occurred without warning caused Mr. Gannon to fall off his bike, and, as a result of that, suffered a fracture.

There was no evidence of any collision with road vehicles, the coroner stated.

* Funded under the Courts Reporting Scheme.