Train struck Dunloy man as he lay face down on track: Inquest told

36-year-old Donal Mullan of Tullaghans Road died instantly during the tragic incident in February of this year.

Coroner John Leckey ruled that Mr Mullan died from multiple injuries caused by actions he took while the balance of his mind was disturbed.

He said the amount of alcohol - three and a half times the legal driving limit - and prescription drugs, including painkillers and anti-depressants, in the body of the deceased would have affected his "emotional stability".

The Coroner said Mr Mullan had not left a suicide note but said there was some degree of planning involved by Mr Mullan in deciding to take his own life and how he would do it.

Mr Leckey said he was conscious such deaths leave a "dreadful legacy" not just for relatives but also for the Translink workers.

Mr Leckey passed on his sympathy to those affected by the tragedy as did a Translink spokesperson.

Mr Leckey said a pathologist's report showed the multiple injuries, which he said he would not list, were consistent with being "run over" by a train and that death would have been "virtually instantaneous".

A blood alcohol reading showed 276/100 which meant the deceased was "severely intoxicated" and painkillers, anti-depressants, diazepam and tranquillisers were also detected.

Fedilme Martin, in a statement, said she was at home around 6pm on February 23 when her ex-partner Donal Mullan arrived in her garden and she let him in to the house.

She said he was agitated and said he was suicidal and was carrying a knife saying he wanted to "slit his throat".

She said she was able to take the knife from him and as he calmed down he played with his son Jack and told him how he would like him to turn out when he grows up.

She said her former partner was very emotional and she took him home at 7.20pm and he hugged her.

She said they could sort the matter out the following day by getting him professional help.

Ms Martin's statement then said that at 9.05pm Mr Mullan rang her and asked about Jack and he seemed calmer and after 9.20pm he came back to her house and talked and joked.

She said Mr Mullan refused a lift home with her sister Donna and he lay beside Jack and talked to him.

Later, she said Mr Mullan wanted his knife back again and he reached for the knife block but she stopped him.

Ms Martin said Mr Mullan said he was not going to go home that night and that she should not phone his mother.

Around 10.30pm she said Mr Mullan said he was going to the railway line but she was said she was "not worried" as the last passenger train normally passed at 10.15pm.

Around 11.15pm she heard the railway crossing barriers sounding continuously and rang Mr Mullan's mother Teresa saying she had a "bad feeling" about it.

Ms Martin said Mr Mullan had previously threatened suicide and she interpreted it as cries for help on a number of occasions.

In the witness box she said did not think it was inevitable he would take his own life as he had been in hospital a number of times.

She added: "He was just more low than he ever was, Compared to any other time. He would have lifted himself up again."

PSNI officer Megan McLaughlin said at the scene an engineering train had stopped and she could see blood on it and a woman, Teresa Mullan, was present saying she believed it was her son on the track.

Victor Brown, who was driving the engineering train, said as he approached the Station Road level crossing at Dunloy he could see something lying on the track but did not know what it was but whilst almost upon it he noticed a pair of blue jeans but there was no movement and he could not see a face.

He said he applied the emergency brake and told his colleague he thought a man had been struck.

Mr Brown agreed with the Coroner it was a "traumatic experience".

Another railway employee, Raymond Dowey, was on the train said they left Ballymena around 11pm to go to Windy Hall near Coleraine and said when he first saw the object on the line he thought it was a cushion and by the time he said it the train was upon it.

He confirmed to the Coroner the incident was "extremely distressing".

Teresa Mullan said she "never ever" expected such an incident to happen involving her son.