A CAR DRIVEN by a 37-year-old father of two exploded and spun 10 feet in the air during a fatal accident involving two articulated lorries, an inquest heard today.
Russell Collman, a martial arts instructor who had represented Ireland internationally, died in the collision that occurred near Charlestown, Co Mayo two days short of his 38th birthday last year.
The tragedy featured on an RTÉ television programme, After The Crash, earlier this year; when his widow Sabina recalled that she had told their two children, Hayden (3) and Lilly (1) that “Daddy’s car grew wings” and flew to Heaven.
Castlebar Coroner’s Court heard evidence from the drivers of the two trucks that had been involved in the collision.
John Moran of Glenhest, Newport, Co Mayo said that he had been driving westbound on the Charlestown bypass at around 5pm on 19 February last year when he saw Collman’s BMW travelling towards him in the opposite direction.
“What caught my attention in this BMW was its lights. It had red angel-eye lights. This was an unusual characteristic on a BMW as their lights would normally be white lights.
As I was noting these red lights, this dark BMW just came into the path of my truck and there was a massive impact. There was an explosion after that noise.
Kevin McLoughlin of Brack, Edgeworthstown, Co Longford – the driver of the other truck – was travelling in the opposite direction at the time of the initial collision.
“While I was driving along, I noticed a black car in the distance driving eastwards in the same direction as I was driving. This car was in front of by maybe 200 or 300 yards,” he stated.
All of a sudden, the black car in front of me moved over completely into the opposite lane and straightened up directly in the path of the red lorry coming the other way.
“The car collided with the lorry and it was a head on. On impact, the car seemed to explode and fly up in the air. The back of the car did a spin in the air; it was maybe 10 feet in the air, and landed back on the hard shoulder on the left-hand side in the direction it had been driving from the outset,” recalled McLoughlin.
Following the initial collision, Moran lost control of his truck and it began veering into the path of the oncoming vehicle.
“The truck initially stayed on a straight path then gradually lost control and started veering to the right… I tried to correct the steering by steering to the left but I had no control of the vehicle… I braked as hard as I possibly could,” he told the inquest.
There was a point when I knew to brace myself as I had no control of the truck and I had noticed a blue Scania articulated truck… coming in the opposite direction… There was a second impact and I heard the driver of the truck calling for assistance.
A post-mortem examination was subsequently carried out on Collman’s body by consultant pathologist Dr Fadel Bennani, whose statement to the inquest reported that the 37-year old had died from massive smash injuries sustained in the road-traffic accident.
A toxicology test carried out on the body showed that a small amount of alcohol was detected in Collman’s blood but that he had been under the legal limit at the time of the crash.
A jury of six men returned a verdict of accidental death. Coroner Pat O’Connor expressed sympathy to Collman’s wife, mother and father-in-law, who were in attendance at the inquest.
He also noted that the drivers of both lorries involved in the collision had been entirely blameless for the tragic outcome of the accident.
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