A MAN died after being hit in the head by a "flying horseshoe", an inquest heard yesterday.

James Byrne, 84, was killed after he drove his car through a rope across a road with the shoe tied to one end.

Gda Helen Nugent told Kilkenny Coroner's Court that when she attended the scene at Kyle West, Callan, Co Kilkenny, the driver's window of Mr Byrne's Clip in hair extensions car was smashed and that he was sitting inside "covered in blood".

She said local farmer Eamon Saunders told her at the scene that he had "waved him down but he drove through it". The court heard that the rope had been tied across the road to direct cattle on May 16, 2007.

Dr Maurice Murphy told the court Mr Byrne, of Cotterstown, Co Kilkenny, suffered a 2cm cut to the side of his head.

He said Mr Byrne had died from "blunt trauma to the skull consistent with a blow to the head from a flying horseshoe".

Seamus Byrne, a first cousin of the deceased, gave evidence to the inquest of
embroidered patches his identifying Mr Byrne at St Luke's Hospital.

A jury returned a verdict of accidental death and recommended that warning signs be put in place at locations where animals are crossing roads.

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