THE TRIAL OF a delivery truck driver who knocked down and killed an elderly woman has heard eyewitness accounts of how the collision occurred in front of a shocked crowd of onlookers.

CCTV footage of just before and after the incident was also played in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial of Justinas Marinskas (41) today.

Marinskas, of Castleview Lawns, Swords, Co Dublin has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to one count of careless driving causing the death of Eileen Dalton at Convent Lane, Dun Laoghaire on 18 February 2022.

The trial has heard that Dalton (78) was walking to work in Monkstown on the morning in question, when she was knocked down by a truck being driven by Marisnkas, a Lynas Foodservice truck driver, who was making a delivery in Dun Laoghaire.

“As the truck driven by the accused made the turn, a collision occurred between the truck and Ms Dalton,” McQuade said in his opening address to the jury this week. “It is the prosecution case that in turning left in the manner in which he did, that he was guilty of careless driving.”

The court has heard that at the time of the collision, a fire drill was taking place in nearby Bloomfields Shopping Centre and a large crowd of shoppers and workers had gathered in various evacuation spots outside.

A number of these eyewitnesses to the collision gave evidence to the court today.

In a statement read out to the court by counsel, shopper Una Heffernan said she was standing outside the centre on the phone to her husband when she said she saw “the truck turn as (Eileen Dalton) was stepping out”.

“I said, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to hit her’,” Heffernan said, adding the lady then “fell to her knees and started to roll towards the truck”. She turned her head away and heard people start screaming. “I knew what had happened,” she said.

Davina Thomas, a shopping centre worker, told the court the lady “wasn’t on the footpath” and “was on the road” when she got hit by the truck.

Under cross-examination from Kevin White SC, defending, Thomas agreed that in her statement to gardaí she said she thought the lady “might have been distracted by the crowd” outside the shopping centre. She agreed she told gardaí the truck was driving “very slowly”.

Another shopping centre worker, Cathy Cross, told the court that she was standing outside the centre with co-workers during the fire drill. She said Dalton was “looking at us to see what was going on”.

“It was like she took a step forward to cross the road and her foot slid under the truck,” Cross said, adding she then heard “a big bang”.

She said she went over to help, but it was “too late”. The court heard ambulance drivers who were in a nearby coffee shop were on the scene almost immediately.

Cross said the truck driver got out and asked, “What happened?” before she told him: “You’re after knocking down this woman.”

“The poor man was in shock,” Cross told the court.

Under cross-examination, Cross agreed she told gardaí that the truck driver had his hands on his head in disbelief after the incident.

Shopper Michelle Jenkins had also just left the shopping centre when she said she saw the truck driving “at normal speed”. She said she thought it had gone over a ramp when everybody started screaming. She said she thought the truck had made a right turn, but she wasn’t sure as it was four years ago.

It was “a sharp turn”, she told the court.

Shopper Kirsty McCormack said she thought the truck went around the corner “quite quickly”.

“I thought it might be an emergency vehicle to do with the alarm going off,” she said. She said her view of what happened next was obscured, but she saw the driver looking “shocked, distraught and upset”.

Shopping centre worker Cara Kennedy said she was standing outside with co-workers when she witnessed the accident. “I saw this lady look over at us and then she looked back, she fell towards the truck,” Kennedy said.

“I saw her fall towards the truck and I saw her try to push herself away and then I saw the tyre go over her, but I looked away because I got a fright.”

Another shopping centre worker, Aoife Stack, said it was “really windy” that day. She said she saw the truck coming around the corner towards the shopping centre and the woman “kind of on the road”.

“The wind kind of just got her and blew her under the wheel.”

Stack agreed with defence counsel that she said in her statement to gardaí that the woman was “on the road, not the footpath” at the time of the collision.

The court heard that after the incident, emergency responders arrived quickly and a doctor at the scene also attended to Dalton, but she was pronounced dead at 10.07am.

A statement by Eileen Dalton’s husband, Nicholas Dalton, was also read out in court by counsel. He said that on the morning in question, he and his wife got up at 7.30am and had breakfast “as usual”. She was feeling well, he said.

He said they left home together around 9.15am, and he dropped her off in Dun Laoghaire across from the post office, where she had some business. He said she was also planning on going into the church to light a candle for her late sister.

Nicholas Dalton said his wife had worked for the same family in Monkstown since 1971. “She loved to walk so I would always drive her to Dun Laoghaire and she would walk to Monkstown,” he said.

He said he found out his wife never made it to Monkstown when gardaí got in touch to inform him she had been involved in a fatal road traffic accident.

The court heard Marinskas gave a statement to gardaí in which he described making the left turn “slowly and safely”. He said there were “many people” around the truck and crossing in front of him.

He said he felt something to the back of the truck after he had completed the turn and heard people screaming. He said he saw a body at the back of the truck before he was taken to the hospital across the road. The trial heard Marinskas was treated for shock.

Investigating Garda Adam Kearney agreed with White that Marinskas tested negative for drugs and alcohol at the scene and mobile phone use was not an issue. The truck was found to be in full working order and Marinskas was fully licenced and insured.

Marinskas is originally from Lithuania but has lived in Ireland for about 20 years and is married with children. He has no previous convictions and continues to work as a delivery driver for Lynas Foodservice, the court heard.

The trial continues before Judge Martin Nolan and a jury.