Family of US police officer settles court action over his death in road collision

The family of a US police officer who died along with his parents and brother in a road traffic incident in Ireland has settled for €310,000 a High Court action over his death.

The High Court heard 49-year-old Stephen Alexander, a father-of-two and a decorated police officer situated in a suburb of Chicago, was a passenger in the vehicle. The proceedings were brought by his widow, Lynn Alexander, of Lemont, Illinois, over his death and for nervous shock arising out of it.

The American visitors, who were in Ireland for a funeral, were travelling in a hire car seven years ago when the driver attempted a U-turn on the main Rosslare to Waterford Road outside New Ross, Co Wexford. The vehicle collided with an articulated lorry.

Mr Alexander died in the December 4th, 2017, collision, along with his father Douglas Alexander snr (75); mother Lily Alexander (75); and brother Douglas Alexander jnr (52), who were also from Chicago. Douglas jnr was the driver of the vehicle.

The court case was against car rental company Executive Trust Ltd, with registered offices at Northwood Business Park, Northwood, Santry, Co Dublin. The company owned the car in which the Alexander family was travelling. The settlement is without an admission of liability.

In the proceedings it was claimed the rental car crossed or attempted to cross the path of an oncoming vehicle, causing the collision, and that a dangerous manoeuvre was executed on the public roadway. It was further claimed there was a failure to wait until traffic had passed safely before crossing or attempting to cross the path of traffic.

An inquest in 2019 into the deaths of the four Americans heard the group had travelled from the US to attend the funeral of Lily’s sister, Winifred.

A garda gave evidence that the Alexanders had flown from Chicago and had been travelling in convoy behind relatives when the crash occurred.

The garda said both cars carried out a U-turn on the road and, while one of the cars managed to complete the manoeuvre, the car driven by Douglas jnr collided with the articulated truck while attempting the same move.

All four died at the scene after their car became trapped underneath the lorry, which jack-knifed as it attempted to avoid them.

The lorry driver, who was driving 10km under the speed limit at the time, said he saw a car shooting across from the left hand side maybe 50m in front of him, and then a second car did so, that he slammed on the brakes, but that the collision nevertheless happened.

The coroner noted the driver of the car would have been at a major disadvantage, having only arrived from the US a few hours previously and would not have had much rest.

The coroner said that being used to driving on the other side of the road, he may have been expecting traffic coming from the left rather than from the right, and that the driver of the lorry had done nothing wrong.

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death in each case.