A TRUCK driver who seriously injured a man after driving through a stop-sign junction was previously convicted of drink driving, hit and run and careless driving, a court heard. Gerry Murray, dad of Munster and Ireland rugby star Conor Murray, was cycling home around 3pm on February 7, 2023 when truck driver Seamus Hanrahan, who was pulling a slurry tanker, struck him. Mr Murray, 70, sustained a significant brain injury. He had to re-learn how to walk and talk properly, through a gruelling regime of medical therapies, Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard. Hanrahan, 53, Kilmore, Granagh, Co Limerick, pleaded guilty to one count of careless driving causing serious bodily harm to Mr Murray on February 7, 2023. Prosecuting barrister, Lily Buckley BL, told Hanrahan’s sentencing hearing that the married father-of-three from a well-known pig-farming family, was travelling within the speed limit at approximately 8-10kph, along a slip road to the N20 on the day. Ms Buckley said Hanrahan “didn’t stop when he should have” at the junction, despite road markings and a red stop sign indicating road users must stop before moving out onto the main road. Hanrahan, who passed a Garda roadside breathalyser test for alcohol and drugs, remained at the scene after the collision and put his coat over Mr Murray, the court heard. Mr Murray was treated at the scene by paramedics and rushed by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick. Doctors there diagnosed him with a “severe traumatic brain injury”, a fractured skull, and bleeds to his brain. Mr Murray’s condition deteriorated at UHL and he was transferred to Cork University Hospital. He was put into a medically induced coma and monitored in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit for seven days. In a victim impact statement read out in court, Mr Murray said the first he knew of the collision was when he woke out of his coma in hospital two and half weeks afterwards. Mr Murray added: “The next five weeks were spent learning to walk and doing all the basic tasks in life. “I have constant tinnitus and have lost my hearing in my left ear.” PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS Mr Murray said he “missed” his son’s wedding abroad because doctors advised him “not to fly because of the fractures to my skull, so I missed what was a major family event”. The court heard Hanrahan had convictions for road traffic matters, including an offence of dangerous driving reduced to careless driving; hit and run, failing to remain at the scene of a collision; drunk driving; failure to display a current vehicle licence, and driving an untaxed vehicle. The maximum sentence available to the court is one of two years in prison and or a €10,000 fine or both. The court can also impose a driving ban.