Cyclist killed by hit-and-run driver, who should have been in prison, was “highly negligent” and “partly responsible” for fatal crash, says judge

The family of a cyclist killed by a hit-and-run driver, who should have been in prison at the time of the fatal crash, have hit out at a judge’s report into the incident, which claimed that the rider was at least “partly responsible” for his own death.

The as-yet-unpublished Department of Justice report, obtained by Irish state broadcaster RTÉ, argued that 23-year-old Shane O’Farrell exhibited “highly negligent behaviour” by cycling on a main road while wearing dark clothes and without lights, and that he was partly responsible for being struck by the driver “unless, for some reason… the rules of the road did not apply to him”.

O’Farrell’s family have heavily criticised the report, which they had hoped would help pave the way for a public inquiry into his death, saying its findings have “retraumatised” them and that they regret having co-operated with it.

Triathlete O’Farrell was killed in August 2011 while training near his home in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, when he was struck by motorist Zigimantas Gridziuska, who fled the scene and hid his car. The 23-year-old was killed instantly and his bike was found 60 metres away.

Gridziuska had 49 previous convictions including aggravated burglary, drugs, and road traffic offences. On the day of the incident he was on bail from at least five different court houses, and had been arrested two weeks earlier in Newry for three counts of theft.

In the year before the crash, Gridziuska received a six-month prison sentence, which he never served due to a Courts Service administration error.

He was found not guilty of dangerous driving in relation to the fatal collison, but was found guilty of failing to stop at the scene of a crash, and handed a suspended eight month sentence. He did not serve any prison time for the hit-and-run.

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In January 2012 the O’Farrell family submitted a formal complaint about the case to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC). They believed that the motorist should have been in custody for breach of his bail conditions at the time of the law graduate’s death, and have campaigned throughout the last decade for reforms to the justice system.

In 2018, after the Dáil voted for a public inquiry into the case, the Department of Justice instead appointed a retired judge, Gerard Haughton, to report on whether further inquiries were necessary.

In the Scoping Exercise report, which has yet to be published, Judge Haughton recommends against an inquiry, with parts of the report emphasising that O’Farrell was partly to blame for the fatal collision.

After noting that Shane was struck from behind and that the motorist “failed to stop and remain at the scene and subsequently that night hid his vehicle”, paragraph two of the 416-page report states that “there were neither front nor rear lights on Shane O Farrell’s bicycle which at the time was being ridden approximately [15 inches] out on the main carriageway of a major road with a speed limit of 100kmph.”

Quoting evidence given at the trial by the Forensic Collision Investigator, the report continues: “The cyclist was wearing dark clothes. He had a small red rear reflector, one yellow reflector on each pedal, and a yellow armband.”

On the first page, the judge also quotes a court judgement which stated that “Failure to have such lighting is highly negligent behaviour on the part of a cyclist.”

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The O’Farrell family, who withdrew their support before the report was finished, strongly disagree with the report’s findings, and told RTÉ that the focus should remain on Zigimantas Gridziuska, who – as well as the debate concerning whether he should have been in custody – did not have car insurance or a valid MOT at the time of the crash.

Shane’s mother Lucia told the broadcaster that Shane was “legally entitled to be on the road”, and “that man [Gridziuska] was not legally entitled to be on the road. And that’s the core issue here.”

She continued: “Why was that man at liberty to kill in circumstances when he should have been in jail? He had committed 30 offences while on bail… He had unpaid fines to the court. He had received a prison sentence for four counts of heroin, which he hadn’t served… where did the system break down that allowed this?”

While Judge Haughton refused to provide a comment to RTÉ, the final report includes a response from him to a letter from the family’s solicitors which complained about the judge’s references to O’Farrell.

In the response, Haughton stated that Shane was “partly responsible” for the collision, “unless, for some reason which you have not explained, the rules of the road and the recommendations of the RSA [Road Safety Authority]… did not apply to him or that you contend that there is no rational basis for the law requiring a cyclist to have lights on a bike at night”.

The judge also referenced a “near miss” involving Shane and two other motorists shortly before the fatal collision.

“The introduction of the report essentially blames Shane for his own death. And as a family member, I think that's so shocking,” Shane’s sister Hannah said.

She also said that the family feel they are now “worse off” than when they initially began to campaign for justice for Shane’s death.

“We’re now left with a report that blames Shane for his own death,” she says. “There’s no doubt that we are now worse off, and Shane’s memory is worse off for us having participated in this process, which is shocking.

“If we had done nothing on the 2nd of August and we hadn’t asked any of those difficult questions, we wouldn’t have a report like this that will sit on a shelf… Shane is completely innocent in this.

“He wasn’t killed by a normal average person who had no previous convictions. He was killed by a criminal who should have been in prison and had multiple previous convictions.”

“It’s cruel. It’s cruel to Shane’s memory,” his mother Lucia said. “I’m sorry I ever took part in anything to do with it. It has retraumatised us, revictimised us.”

Last year, two police officers who were accused of negligence in their handling of Shane’s case had their disciplinary sanctions revoked by Garda commissioner Drew Harris.

In February 2019 the then-Justice minister Charlie Flanagan announced that the Garda Commission’s initial report into the case “found there were no grounds for criminal proceedings against any member of the Gardai. However, the report identified conduct that might lead to disciplinary proceedings and commenced an investigation into that conduct.

“Tragically, the actions of the Gardai fell short of what should have happened where a person on bail or remand is subsequently arrested for other offences.”

However, following the internal investigation into the incident, the Garda commissioner Harris agreed in January 2022 to quash the fines and findings of negligence against two of the three officers who faced sanctions.

The previous July, Shane’s sister Hannah accused the Irish government of a lack of transparency in its handling of the case, and said that the family felt “like we’re the enemy because we’re asking these questions."