The high court case regarding the vehicular accident that claimed the life of a distinguished US police officer, Stephen Alexander, along with his parents and brother, has been settled for €310,000. This accident occurred seven years prior in Ireland, while the American family was there attending a funeral. Stephen Alexander of Chicago, a 49-year-old father of two, was a passenger in the vehicle when the crash took place on the main route from Rosslare to Waterford, outside New Ross in County Wexford.
The legal proceedings were initiated by Stephen’s widow, Lynn Alexander, from Lemont, Illinois, pursuing compensation for her husband’s untimely death and for the psychological distress that followed. The family had travelled to Ireland to pay their final respects to the late Winifred, Lily Alexander’s sister.
The fatal incident happened when the main car, driven by Stephen’s brother, Douglas junior, tried to make a U-turn on the highway and collided with a large lorry. Stephen, his father Douglas senior (75), his mother Lily (75), and brother Douglas junior (52) also lost their lives in the accident, which occurred on December 4, 2017.
The case was brought against Executive Trust Ltd, a car rental firm with its registered address at Northwood Business Park in Santry, County Dublin. The Alexander family had rented the vehicle from this company. Although the litigation has been settled, there has been no formal admission of liability.
According to court reports, the legal argument was centred around the alleged dangerous manoeuvre attempted by the hired car, asserting that it moved across the path of another vehicle, causing the collision. The assertion also included allegations of failure to wait until the road was clear of traffic before initiating the manoeuvre. A police officer testified in a 2019 inquest that the American family had arrived from Chicago and were following local relatives when the crash occurred. While one car was able to execute the U-turn successfully, the car driven by Douglas junior collided with the lorry during a similar attempt.
The unfortunate demise of all four individuals occurred on-site when their vehicle got ensnared beneath a lorry after it jack-knifed attempting to dodge their trajectory. The lorry operator, who was travelling 10km below the permissible speed, recounted noticing a vehicle darting from the left flank approximately 50m ahead of him, followed by a second vehicle. Despite applying the brakes hastily, an unavoidable collision occurred.
The coroner highlighted that the car’s driver, recently landed from the US a few hours prior, would have been significantly incapacitated due to fatigue. Accustomed to driving on the opposite side of the road, the driver likely anticipated oncoming traffic from the left instead of the right, leading to the fatal error. The lorry driver, according to the coroner, bore no blame for this tragedy.
The jury consequently declared each death as accidental.