A woman who struck and seriously injured a cyclist before fleeing the scene in Co Louth was traced by gardaà after she brought her damaged vehicle to a garage for repairs.
Gagandeep Kaur, aged 38, of Glenwood, Dundalk, appeared at Dundalk Circuit Court and admitted to driving without due care and attention causing serious bodily harm to Dr Sean Owens, a former GP, on the R132 at Dromiskin on the evening of 6 January 2025. She also pleaded guilty to failing to stop and offer medical assistance and to attempting to pervert the course of justice, reports RTE.
The court heard that Dr Owens had finished work at his practice in Castlebellingham and was cycling towards Dundalk to carry out a house call when he was struck from behind by a vehicle and knocked from his bicycle. The road was dry and conditions were clear at the time. An advanced paramedic described how his helmet had been shattered and his bicycle mangled. Garda Conor Hegarty, who attended the scene at around 6.45pm, said Dr Owens was found at the roadside with a severe laceration to the right side of his head, and it appeared his ear had been severed.
Dr Owens was conscious at the scene but his condition deteriorated after he was taken to hospital and he had to be transferred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. A Mercedes-Benz badge was recovered from the opposite side of the road. The court heard that Kaur had become distracted while driving and was checking on her young daughter who was crying in the back seat. Her vehicle was located at a crash repair garage two days after the incident, following a tip-off from the garage owner to gardaÃ. She subsequently told gardaà that one lie had turned into a hundred lies because of panic and shock, reports RTE.
In his victim impact statement, Dr Owens told the court that he had to relearn how to walk and talk after the collision and still has some slurred speech, which affects how the world perceives him. He said he has been left unable to practise as a GP — a role he had worked hard for, having returned to college in his 30s — and described the financial impact on his family as enormous.
He told the court he deeply missed his patients and colleagues and said coming to terms with the fact that this was no longer his role in life remained an ongoing struggle for him, reports RTE.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
