Car in killer crash was overloaded, inquest hears
The driver of an overloaded car, that overturned into a flooded ditch, was travelling at speeds of up to 80 mph on the approach to the accident site, the Inquest into a death of a passenger heard.
Thomas ‘Nelly’ McDonagh (19) of Rynn, Carraroe, died from a combination of crush injuries and drowning at the townland of Kylemore, in the Inagh Valley, on the morning of February 2 last year.
He had been sitting on the lap of the front seat passenger in a car driven by his friend, Brian McDonagh (24) – who is currently serving an eight year prison sentence for dangerous driving causing death.
The group of six friends had visited some pubs in the area and were driving around when the car skidded at a bend, travelled 40 yards, before overturning into a water-logged ditch. One of the passengers said that the driver had been travelling at 80 mph on the approach, and had lost control on the wet road surface.
The Inquest heard that the occupants panicked in the total darkness, as the car began to fill with water and they could not get out. Some were knocked out, and Thomas McDonagh, who had received crush injuries in the impact, was unable to hold himself out of the water.
A passerby, Odie Lynch, was flagged down by one of the men, and he helped to pull Thomas from the car, which was in five feet of water.
There was no sign of life, however, and he was pronounced dead by the roadside at 3.45am.
Consultant pathologist, Dr Mary Casey, carried out a post mortem examination, and concluded that he had died from asphyxia due to a combination of a crush injury and drowning.
When Gardaí arrived at the scene, the passengers and Brian McDonagh claimed that they could not remember who was driving the car, but they were able to name their friend who had died.
“I suspected Brian McDonagh, as he was extremely agitated and aggressive when I spoke to him, and the car was registered to his girlfriend,” Garda Shane Quinn told the Inquest.
In UHG, when he was asked to give a blood or urine sample to a designated nurse, the driver told the Garda: “It doesn’t matter, as you won’t catch me this time.”
He was subsequently arrested in Clifden on suspicion of dangerous driving causing the death of his friend, but denied the charge right up to the date of his trial.
In sentencing him, Judge Rory McCabe said that he had shown no remorse.
Coroner for West Galway, Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin, returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence. He explained to Thomas McDonagh’s parents, Terry and Nelly, why an inquiry of this sort was necessary.
“When an accident occurs, which results in a fatality, there is an obligation on the State and the Coroner to establish exactly what happened – to ensure that there are no cover-ups, and it doesn’t lead to a situation where rumours be rendered to any death,” he said.
“While it is very painful for you to come here and relive it, I think it’s very important for you to know precisely what happened.”
He thanked one of the passengers for his frank statement to Gardaí, outlining what had happened in the run-up to the crash. He said that this had satisfactorily established for the inquiry what speed the car was going at, who was driving, and who was in it at the time.
He also thanked the emergency services and the ‘good Samaritan’ who came to their assistance.