Retired teacher died after being struck by jeep - inquest told

A VERDICT of accidental death has been returned on a retired secondary schoolteacher who died from her injuries after being struck by a jeep on Emmett Street, Ballina, last September.

Mrs. Kathleen Slack (70), who lived at Corrimbla South, Ballina, was walking on Emmett Street around 9 p.m. on September 10 when she was struck by a jeep driven by a man from the Carrowmore Lacken area.

She died later from her injuries at Mayo University Hospital, Castlebar, after initially being transferred to Beaumont Hospital, Dublin.

The inquest into Mrs. Slack’s death, which was conducted by Coroner John O’Dwyer, heard that a breath test on the jeep driver proved negative and there was no evidence to suggest that he hadn’t been driving carefully at the time of the impact.

Mrs. Slack, a mother of five, taught business studies at St. Mary’s Secondary School, Ballina, up to her retirement some years ago.

Her tragic death, as the coroner noted at the conclusion of the inquest in Castlebar, brought much grief not alone to her family, other relatives, former students, but also the wider community.