Day 3 of Waterford Trial: Witness describes horror scene after e-scooter collision that killed teenagers
Gilbert Collins and Avuzwa Sampo.
A man who arrived on the scene of a fatal collision in Waterford city on June 27, 2024, said he fell into a state of shock and felt sick at what he saw.
The incident occurred on the Cork Road at approximately 2am.
Gilbert Collins, age 15, and Avuzwa Sampo, age 17, were both riding on a single e-scooter that morning, when a bus driven by Adrian Doyle of Ard Glas, Ferrybank, collided with them from behind, killing them both.
Doyle has pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving causing death.
A jury of nine men and three women has been empanelled, and the trial at Waterford Circuit Court is ongoing.
Yesterday, dashcam footage of the incident elicited a strong reaction of distress from family members of the deceased in the court room.
It showed the two boys veer to the centre of the road, before an immediate shattering of the bus’s front windscreen upon impact.
Today, day three of the trial, further evidence was provided, including the memorandum of interview that Doyle gave to the gardaí in the aftermath of the collision, and testimony from eyewitnesses who saw the boys on the road that night.
Additionally, the prosecution and defence offered their closing statements to the jury.
They described the case as tragic, difficult and appalling.
Mr. Stephen Bardgett operates a mechanical workshop on the Cork Road.
On the morning of the collision, he told the jury that he left his garage and drove onto the road, where he recalls overtaking an e-scooter that was carrying two people.
He remembers the rear passenger of the scooter looking over his shoulder at his car as he passed.
Mr. Bardgett recalled them both wearing dark clothing.
He wondered what they were doing on the road at that hour of the morning.
Mr. Bardgett remembers learning later that day that there had been a collision involving an e-scooter on the Cork Road. He realised it could have been the two boys he had seen earlier.
A seperate witness, Mr. Craig McDowall, who was called on behalf of the defence, said that at approximately 1:15am that morning, he approached a roundabout on the outskirts of Waterford city, when he saw something unusual.
He said that he saw a “black flash” appear; an e-scooter travelling quickly with no lights.
He said the e-scooter had travelled the wrong way around the roundabout.
He recalls exclaiming to his wife in the passenger seat that the e-scooter would have hit the side of their car if they had arrived moments later.
State Prosecutor, Mr. Niall Storan, cross-examined the witness, saying that it couldn’t have been Gilbert or Avuzwa he saw, because CCTV footage showed they were at Snap Fitness in Waterford Retail Park at the time Mr. McDowall said he saw the e-scooter on the roundabout.
Mr. McDowall said his recollection of seeing the e-scooter at 1:15am was approximate, and not exact.
Although Mr. Bardgett and Mr. McDowall were not in the vicinity when the collision itself happened, another man was, Mr. Keith Hatch, who was working the night shift at Schivo Medical on the Cork Road.
Mr. Hatch told the jury that he left the Schivo building at approximately 2am to go on his scheduled break.
He was standing outside the building waiting for a food order to arrive, when he saw the lights of a vehicle pass by on the road. He said it sounded as if the vehicle was driving quickly.
Suddenly, he heard glass smashing further down the road.
He hopped a railing onto the road to investigate and briefly began recording the smashed windscreen of the bus on his mobile phone.
He stopped recording and saw two boys on the ground.
One of them was lying face down on a grass verge on the side of the road making a groaning noise.
The other, Mr. Hatch said, was very clearly already dead.
He recalls being in a state of shock and feeling sick.
He saw the driver of the bus on the road and asked him: "What the f*ck happened?"
The driver, Mr. Adrian Doyle, was already on the phone to gardaí.
Detective Garda Paul Flynn interviewed Mr. Doyle by arrangement at Waterford Garda Station later that afternoon.
During the interview, Mr. Doyle told him that he drove trucks and buses.
He had got his rigid truck driver’s licence in 2009 and obtained his bus licence in 2016.
He had been working full-time as a bus driver for JJ Kavanagh & Sons, driving night routes to Dublin Airport.
He had no health issues, no difficulties sleeping and no serious problems in his life that would have impacted his work.
The morning of the collision started completely normal, he said.
At approximately 1am, he collected the bus at the JJ Kavanagh & Sons depot on the Dunmore Road.
He completed a checklist and made his way to a depot at Butlerstown to complete further checks.
He left the depot and proceeded onto the Cork Road towards his first pick up of the night at South East Technological University.
He was in no hurry, because he had commenced his route early, he said.
He told gardaí that he knew the road well and that there were perfect driving conditions that night.
He recalls suddenly hitting something. He didn’t know what it was and thought it could have been an animal.
He said everything felt like it went in slow motion after that.
Detective Flynn said to Mr. Doyle that the onboard dashcam and tachograph show the bus was travelling 77km/h in a 50km/h zone when the collision occurred.
Mr. Doyle said he thought he was travelling the 50km/h speed limit.
Detective Flynn said to Mr. Doyle that it looked as if he attempted to overtake the e-scooter in the dashcam footage.
Mr. Doyle said he did not attempt an overtake, but that he pressed the brake twice. The first time it didn’t work, and so he pressed it a second time.
Evidence shows that he drove onwards for another 15 seconds after the collision.
Doyle was asked if he recalls one of the boys turning his head to look at him moments before the collision. He said he did not see that.
Additional evidence was provided by Garda Padraig Coholan, a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) Inspector with An Garda Siochana.
He conducted a brake test on the bus in the aftermath of the incident. The vehicle passed.
Mr. Darren Flynn, a CVRT inspector, conducted a road worthiness test on the bus in August 2024. The brake tests he conducted also passed.
Inspector Alan Kissane, of Dungarvan Garda Station, said to the jury that he took a statement in 2024 from Mr. Donal O’Brien, who was Adrian Doyle’s boss at JJ Kavanagh & Sons.
Mr. O’Brien said in this statement that Doyle would always commence his routes ahead of time.
He described Mr. Doyle as a “very conscientious guy”.
This afternoon, the prosecution and defence provided their closing arguments to the jury.
State Prosecutor Niall Storan BL, described the case as “tragic and difficult”.
He said that there was no evidence of pre-collision braking from Doyle, and that the bus was in a perfect roadworthy condition.
He acknowledged that the two boys on the scooter “weren’t doing what they should have been doing”.
The scooter had no lights, they were on the road in the very early hours of the morning, and it was illegal for the two boys to be riding together.
He said the decisions the boys took that night “are matters of sadness”.
Despite this, the bus driven by Mr. Doyle was “absolutely flying”, Mr. Storan said.
He was driving 77km/h in a 50km/h zone, and he showed no signs of slowing until after the collision.
It was a straight road, weather conditions were good, and video evidence showed the area to be well lit, Mr Storan added.
He said that Mr. Doyle approached a slow-moving object on the road, and could have avoided it had he been driving the speed limit.
Defence counsel for Mr Doyle, Ms Kate Egan SC, said in her speech to the jury that her client is “fighting for his life”.
He is a single man, unmarried, and his occupation as a bus driver was very important to him.
She said that Mr Doyle is “appalled” by the incident, and that he recalls the CCTV footage in his mind every time he closes his eyes.
“Make no mistake, he is suffering, and he has been punished plenty,” Ms Egan said.
She asked the jury to consider the dashcam footage they were shown in court yesterday, pointing out that the angle of the footage is vastly different to the view of the road Mr Doyle had in the driver’s seat.
This footage showed the two boys veer to the centre of the road moments prior to the collision.
Ms Egan said there was no risk of injury prior to “those poor kids” veering towards the centre of the road.
She said her client had no option, and he couldn’t have avoided them.
Tomorrow morning, the jury will begin their deliberations.
