LAST UPDATE | 11 Jul
A CORONER HAS recorded a verdict of accidental death in the inquest of four young people who died in a road crash on their way to celebrate Leaving Cert results.
Grace McSweeney, 18, her brother Luke, 24, and pals Zoey Coffey, 18, Nicole Murphy 18, died in the collision on 25 August 2023 which happened in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
The three 18-year-old girls were going to a Leaving Cert results event and were being driven in the car by Luke.
The deaths of the four young people shocked the nation, with President Michael D Higgins sending condolences to the families and the whole community in the Tipperary town.
Coroner Joseph Kelly heard evidence from garda investigators and read depositions from witnesses and details of the cause of death.
The key findings of the inquest were that all witnesses spoke about a torrential rain shower happening at the time of the collision.
A forensic collision investigator and witnesses said the speed of the BMW Coupe car driven by Luke McSweeney was not excessive.
A garda Public Service Vehicle (PSV) inspector told the inquest that two rear wheels had thread depths that were below the required legal standard on the rear wheel drive vehicle.
Post mortems determined that the four people died of head injuries — there were no intoxicants found in examinations of the driver’s body.
In a deposition to the court, Brigid McSweeney, mother of Luke and Grace, said that the three girls were celebrating their leaving certificate results and were heading into town to get a bus to an event in Carlow.
She had offered to drive them in, but her son Luke had decided to make the trip instead.
The four people left the McSweeney home at Ragwell Cottages at 7.30 pm and were driving in the Raheen area of Clonmel. Luke and Grace were in the front and wearing seatbelts, the two rear seat passengers were Nicole Murphy and Zoe Coffey.
There were no witnesses to the moment of impact, but several people had either spotted the car or saw the car on its journey or saw the aftermath.
Margaret O’Meara, said she saw the car passing her home and that it was not driving “at any great speed”.
The inquest heard from multiple witnesses that there was heavy rain at the time of the crash.
A separate witness deposition stated that a householder heard three loud bangs at the time it is believed the collision occurred.
Brigid McSweeney, the mother of Luke and Grace, said that the last time she saw her children alive was as they drove out of their home.
A short time later, a neighbour ran into the house to tell her that her son’s car was “on its roof at the end of the road”. She immediately ran from her home to the crash scene.
Another witness recorded a six second video clip that showed heavy rain in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
Garda Andrew Kiely gave evidence that he had taken up duty at 7 pm and was responding with two other colleagues to a call at 7.35 pm when they received a call to divert to the crash scene.
He recalled heavy rain, with streams flowing along the side of the road and water on the surface. He went to the car and tried to force open the door using his metal baton. He said he could see two people trapped inside and possibly a third person.
He said the scene was silent except for the noise of a window wiper scraping on the car.
Witness Declan Mee was returning home in torrential rain on his motorbike when he came on the collision.
He said in his deposition that he was “taking it very handy going around bends” such was the volume of rain.
He said he spotted the scene and debris on the road. He dismounted his bike and took off his helmet and approached the car.
But as he and other members of the public examined the car, they realised that the four occupants of the vehicle were deceased.
“We all stood in silence as we knew people in the car were dead and there was nothing we could do,” he said.
Critical evidence was delivered by Garda John Coughlan, who is a forensic collision investigator.
In a detailed presentation to the inquest, he outlined how his examination determined how fast the BMW was travelling using CCTV footage and how a piece of the windshield flung from the car determined the impact speed.
He said that CCTV showed the BMW approaching a 90-degree bend. The vehicle slowed and then accelerated out of the bend. He calculated the speed at that time at 41kkm/hr.
He used other CCTV and calculated the speed using the frames of the footage against the distance it travelled between three light poles. He found that 100 metres from the collision impact spot, the car was travelling at 75.5 kilometres per hour in a 50kms per hour zone.
Coughlan said that at an unknown distance, the driver lost control and the car struck a footpath. The vehicle rotated as it struck a wall and flipped onto its roof.
The garda also gathered evidence of the driver side wheel rim digging into the road surface gouging a mark as it flipped.
The car crossed a lane of the road and came to rest at a wall — the car suffered extensive crush damage to the roof.
Coughlan said that the BMW collided with the wall at 59.3kms per hour. He was unable to determine the pre collision speed.
PSV inspector Eamon Raleigh examined the three door BMW coupe. He found considerable interior damage.
He also found that the seat belts were worn by the occupants and that airbags had deployed.
He saw that two of the rear tyres of the rear wheel drive vehicle were below the legal thread depth limit with one of the wheels showing wiring and the internal structure of the tyre exposed.
He told the coroner’s court that this was a dangerous defect and would affect accelerating, breaking and handling during certain weather conditions.
The coroner Joseph Kelly said that post mortem examinations determined the four people died due to severe head injuries consistent with a road traffic collision.
Kelly said that he believed that a verdict of accidental death was appropriate and defined it as an “unintended act that resulted in death”.
“On this evening Clonmel had experienced extremely heavy rain, those conditions are well established in witness statements and a Met Éireann report.
“The car travelled down a steep hill, I am very much sure that the road would have been like a flowing river. For some unknown reason, we will never get to the full facts, but it left the roadway, mounted a curb and hit a wall which resulted in this tragic collision,” he said.
The coroner expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased.
“Luke Grace, Nicole and Zoe were all in the prime of their lives, they had so much to look forward to – as they set off on that journey they could not have known the catastrophic events that awaited them.
“There was an outpouring of grief, both nationally and locally, and I’m sure that the family took great solace in those dark days following the collision,” he added.
The coroner and Padraig Hayes, solicitor for the McSweeney family, thanked gardaí, fire brigade and ambulance personnel for their work.
Inspector Noel Barry offered his sympathies on behalf of An Garda Síochána.
Brigid McSweeney, the mother of Luke and Grace, speaking to The Journal after the verdict said: “I just want a message to go out to the country that we really appreciate what people did for us”.
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