{"id":614574,"date":"2026-09-04T19:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T19:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/614574\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T19:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T19:28:13","slug":"misadventure-verdict-returned-on-death-of-donegal-businessman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/614574\/","title":{"rendered":"Misadventure verdict returned on death of Donegal businessman"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Donegal businessman who was killed in a road traffic collision in 2022 died by misadventure, an inquest has found.<\/p>\n

Seamus Rogers lost his life in a road traffic collision just before 8am on October 14, 2022 on the R245 at Devlinreagh, Carrigart.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old Mr Rogers, late of Gortnabrade, Carrigart, was the proprietor of SR Auto Parts in Milford and he was also the skipper of some fishing trawlers.<\/p>\n

An inquest into his death was heard by Donegal Coroner Dr Denis McCauley at Letterkenny courthouse and heard that Mr Rogers was more than twice the drink-drive limit when his Maserati GranTurismo collided with a tree on the morning in question.<\/p>\n

A forensic collision investigator told the inquest that speed was \u201ca likely contributing factor\u201d to the crash.<\/p>\n

A deposition from another motorist was read into the inquest. The man said he was driving a black Hyundai jeep and recalled seeing a car coming from the Gortnabrade Road.<\/p>\n

He remembered that there was very heavy rain and he had his wipers on full. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t dark but it wasn\u2019t fully bright either,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He heard a vehicle passing and noted that the visibility was \u201cpoor.\u201d As the car overtook his jeep, he said it \u201ccame in very close in front of me on my front driver\u2019s side. The car came in sideways ahead of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he saw the front headlight of the car he knew \u201csomething wasn\u2019t right\u201d.<\/p>\n

He remembered that the tail of the car was heading in the same direction as he was and \u201csomehow\u201d the driver got the car corrected. However, it immediately spun.<\/p>\n

This all happened \u201cin just a couple of seconds\u201d, the witness\u2019 deposition said.\u00a0 He added that he saw the car colliding with a tree and he put his hazard lights on and made a 999 call.<\/p>\n

Garda Liam O\u2019Riordan told the inquest how he received a report of a single-vehicle collision at Devlinreagh. He remembered that the road surface was \u201cvery wet\u201d and visibility was \u201cpoor\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Garda O\u2019Riordan knew the driver to be Mr Rogers and couldn\u2019t find a pulse. The Fire Brigade and ambulance arrived just after 8.20am.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr John Lannon from Carrigart Medical Centre attended the scene and pronounced Mr Rogers deceased at 8.50am.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Noting the post-mortem results, Dr McCauley said that Mr Rogers would have died instantly as he suffered “significant injuries”.<\/p>\n

Dr McCauley said that a toxicology report showed that the alcohol level in Mr Rogers\u2019 system was 133 micrograms of alcohol per 100 mililitres of blood, where the legal drink-driving limit is 50mg\/100ml. He added that the urinary alcohol reading was \u201cslightly higher\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sergeant Hugh McCann, a Garda forensic collision investigator, told how he examined the scene. He said the speed limit on the road in question was 80km\/h and the collision occurred when the Maserati car lost control, colliding with a hedgerow before connecting with a tree.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Rogers was wearing a seatbelt and Sergeant McCann said that while there was insufficient evidence to determine the actual speed, the severe damage to the vehicle would indicate that speed was \u201ca likely contributing factor\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said conditions were \u201cpoor\u201d and there was a lot of standing water on the road surface which may also have contributed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The car was roadworthy and there were no defects detected that could have contributed to or caused the collision. Sergeant McCann confirmed to Dr McCauley that there were \u201cno marks left on the road to examine\u201d and there was no evidence found of any contact between the two vehicles.<\/p>\n

Dr McCauley said it was very clear that Mr Rogers died of multiple injuries as a result of a road traffic collision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said that perhaps some actions of Mr Rogers increased the risk of a collision happening and he returned a verdict of misadventure.<\/p>\n

The Coroner described the incident as a \u201cvery tragic event\u201d and condolences were conveyed to family members who were present.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Donegal businessman who was killed in a road traffic collision in 2022 died by misadventure, an inquest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-614574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}