The pier at Buncrana where five members of the same family tragicaly lost their lives in March 2016
THE driver of a car that slipped off Buncrana pier in which five people drowned was more than three times over the drink-driving limit.
The evidence was given at the inquest into the deaths of five people on March, 20th 2016.
The coroner’s court, held at the Lake of Shadows Hotel, heard evidence from consultant pathologist Dr Katrina Dillon.
Dr Dillon said that she examined the body of the late Mr Sean McGrotty at Letterkenny University Hospital.
After various medical examinations which found lacerations as well as cuts, Dr Dillon said that death was due to drowning.
However, Dr Dillon said that an examination of the body found that there was a level of intoxication in Mr McGrotty’s body.
She said samples taken from the body of Mr McGrotty and sent to the State Laboratory.
The reading returned showed the driver of the Audi Q7 jeep had a blood alcohol level of 159 millilitres.
Dr Dillon said the drink-driving level in this case was 50 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.
On cross-examination, Dr Dillon said she couldn’t say what level of impairment such a reading would have as it depended on each individual’s capacity.
“I can’t say what level of impairment there was,” she said.
Earlier at today’s inquest, Louise James, who lost her mother, partner, sister and two little boys in the Buncrana drowning tragedy has told how she knew something was wrong the moment she got a phonecall alerting her to the tragedy.
She told the inquest into the deaths of five members of her family that she last saw them on Friday, March 18th.
Her partner Sean McGrotty and boys had left her off to a friend’s house at 4pm as she was traveling to Liverpool to attend a friend’s hen party.
She revealed that just minutes before the tragedy, at 6.55pm, she had spoken by phone with her sister Jodi Lee and boys who were playing in a playpark on the shorefront in Buncrana.
A short time later while at the airport on her journey home, she received a phonecall at 7.25pm from her brother Joshua.
“I got feeling something wasn’t right,” she said.
He told her there had been an incident in Buncrana and that a car had gone into the water but he thought it contained two men.
Ms James said she had tried to contact both her partner and her sister but could not reach them.
She took her plane to Belfast and when she arrived she was contacted by family members by phone.
She was informed that her partner Sean, sons, sister and mother had drowned but that baby Rioghnach-Ann had been saved.
She travelled to her home in Derry and then travelled on to Letterkenny University Hospital to see her surviving child and to make the harrowing identification of the rest of her tragic family.
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