Death driver Noel Carr arriving at the Coronors inquest into fatal road crash which killed two of his friends. (North West Newspix)
A man was driving well in excess of 50 mph on a country road in Co Donegal before he crashed his car killing two of his friends, an inquest has heard.
Noel Carr, 26, is now serving a three year jail sentence after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing the deaths of Shaun Graham, 19, and Matthew Crawford, 21, outside Rathmullan in August 3rd, 2013.
Carr survived the crash after being airlifted to Derry’s Altnagelvin Hospital for treatment.
The men were among a group of four who had left a local seaside festival in Rathmullan and were traveling to a house party in Fanad when the tragedy occurred.
The families and friends of the dead men attended their joint inquests at the Mount Errigal Hotel in Letterkenny yesterday.
The coroner’s court heard how Carr’s white Honda Integra car lost control, struck a tree and then a wall before landing upside down in the garden of a house about half a mile outside Rathmullan close to Kinnegar Bridge.
Garda evidence in the inquest said it was unlikely that the two young men who were killed in the crash were wearing seat belts during the crash.
Both Mr Graham and Mr Crawford died instantly.
Two two other men in the car, driver Noel Carr and another passenger Damien Gallagher, were whisked by helicopter to Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry.
Collision investigator Frank Lavin, told the court that he had carried out a number of tests to re-enact the driving on the night.
He had instructed a farmer to water the road to reflect the weather conditions on the evening of the crash and had then driven the road between four and five occasions.
He said the safest speed he could take the bend on the road at was 65kph and said his opinion was that the speed of the car on the night was “well in excess of 80kph.”
Pathologist Dr Gerry O’Dowd said he examined both men and said that both had died as a result of multiple injuries as a result of a road traffic accident.
The deposition of the father of Shaun Graham, Mr Michael Graham, was read to the inquest.
He said how his other son Mark had called him just before 5am in the morning and told him that Shaun had been involved in a bad smash.
He contacted Gardai who asked to meet him at the morgue at Letterkenny University Hospital and he said that although he had traveled to the morgue in hope, he knew what he was going to.
Mr Graham said that Noel Carr had been at his house regularly as he had been best friends with his son Shaun.
“I told him that as long as he tells me the truth he is welcome in my house,” said Mr Graham in his deposition at the time.
The mother of the other dead man, Mrs Joan Crawford, said a friend of her son, Lisa Curran, had called her around 5am and told her that her son Matthew he had been in a crash.
In her deposition given after the crash, Mrs Crawford said she identified her son.
She added that Carr had called to her home and that he looked sick and green but that he could not remember anything about the crash.
She added that she felt Carr, of Newmills, Letterkenny, had been punished enough without being branded a criminal or being locked up adding that he “didn’t mean to go out and do it.”
Carr, who had been transported from prison by prison officers for the inquest, said he remembers collecting his friends in the car but did not remember anything after the crash.
In his deposition he said “I’m very sorry for what happened that night and I didn’t go out to hurt anyone. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of the boys and their families. I wish I could turn back the clock. All I can say is that I am sorry.”
Coroner Dr Denis McCauley said the jury could not find a verdict other than the verdict handed down previously against Carr of dangerous driving causing death at Letterkenny Circuit Court.
The jury also found that both men died as a result of their injuries consistent with a road traffic accident.
He expressed his sympathy to both families for what he said was a “shocking accident”.
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