A train driver blew the horn and applied the emergency brakes after seeing two women walking towards him “in the middle of the track”, Sligo Coroner’s Court has heard.
Coroner Eamonn MacGowan told driver Padraig O’Gara that he did all that he could and could not have done anything else.
As first reported by RTE, Mr O’Gara attended the inquest into the death of Jessica McLoughlin, 40, of Rusheen Ard, Caltragh Co Sligo.
The mother-of-four sustained fatal injuries after she and her niece were involved in a collision with a Sligo to Dublin train near Ballisodare on 14 June 2023.
In a statement, 26 year old Rebecca Leydon, told the coroner that she and her aunt Jessica had caught a train at about 1pm that day in Sligo as they were going to Dublin for a day out.
She said they had got off in Collooney because she had left her phone behind in a shop in Sligo.
An autopsy showed that Ms McLoughlin had sustained multiple injuries in the collision, and toxicology tests showed the presence of alcohol, cocaine and prescription drugs in her system.
The Coroner expressed his sympathies to Ms McLoughlin family and in particular her niece Rebecca.
