Gardaí have been cleared of any wrongdoing over their pursuit of a father of four who was killed when his car crashed, after the Director of Public Prosecutions recommended that there be no prosecution arising from the incident.
William O'Driscoll (36), from Kenley Circle, Model Farm Road, Cork, was killed when he was thrown through the driver's window of his Omega Opel after it crashed into an embankment and trees on the South Link Road in Cork on February 10th last.
Mr O'Driscoll was being pursued by two Garda cars at the time, having failed to stop after being signalled to do so by gardaí at Glanmire.
The Garda had received reports of a car driving dangerously on the Glanmire Watergrasshill bypass at 5.25pm on the day in question.
The gardaí involved in the pursuit were from the Cork city and Cork north Garda divisions and in keeping with standard Garda practice, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy appointed a senior officer from outside these divisions to investigate what happened.
Supt Pat Maher from Clonakilty put together a team of officers from the west Cork Garda division, who interviewed the gardaí involved in the pursuit as well as civilian witnesses who were also driving on the road at the time.
Supt Maher confirmed to The Irish Times that gardaí had prepared a file on the matter, which was forwarded to the DPP in June.
The DPP had recommended that there be no prosecutions arising out of the incident.
"We got a great response to an appeal for witnesses and statements were taken from all these people and included in a comprehensive file which was forwarded to the DPP, who recommended that there be no prosecution," said Supt Maher.
Supt Maher said that a file would now be prepared for the Coroner's Court to allow the inquest into the death of Mr O'Driscoll take place as soon as possible.
The file will include the results of blood and toxicology tests carried out at a postmortem on the deceased.
