The coroner for Co Donegal has appealed to people to think long and hard about the devastation caused by fatal road crashes.
Dr Denis McCauley was speaking at the conclusion of the inquests into the deaths of four young men who died in a crash near Gort an Choirce (Gortahork) in the west of the county in January last year.
Mícheál Roarty, 24, from Gaoth Dobhair; Shaun Harkin, 22, and John Harley, 24, both from Fál Carragh; and Daniel Scott, 23, from Gort an Choirce, all died in the crash on 27 January 2019.
Dr McCauley said it was a horrendous accident. He said they were four close friends who decided to go out to enjoy themselves and made a couple of decisions that had a dreadful outcome.
The crash had devastating effects, Dr McCauley said, which rippled through the community and he said you could hear the devastation in the statements read out at the inquest in Letterkenny Courthouse.
Dr McCauley said we do not want this to happen again and he appealed to people to be careful and think long and hard about the devastation caused by crashes and the effect they have.
The inquest heard that the four young men had been drinking together before the crash on a narrow rural road.
Garda evidence was that the car went off the road as it was going downhill near a bridge and that it was airborne before landing in a field on its roof.
The driver of the car, Daniel Scott, was more than six times over the legal blood alcohol limit and also had cocaine in his system.
The coroner concluded that Mr Scott and the three other young men died from multiple injuries, chiefly head injuries, with the crash described as "misadventure".
The court heard that Mr Scott and Mr Harkin were both wearing seatbelts, but that the two other men were not.
Superintendent Seamus McGonigle described the crash as the tragic loss of four, fine young men in the prime of their lives.
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Tributes paid to victims of Donegal road crash
The inquests heard that the car, a three-door hatchback Toyota Corolla, was travelling at an estimated speed of 120km/h when the crash happened.
The speed limit on the rural road was 80km/h.
Garda forensic investigator Gerard McCauley said the car was travelling downhill when a tyre hit the verge and it was airborne for almost 23 metres before landing on its roof in a field.
The first person on the scene was a friend of the four men, Ivan O'Donnell who had been socialising with them earlier and was heading back to meet them again when he saw headlights in the field.
He saw the car on its roof and knew it was Daniel's. He said there was silence in the car.
He saw John Garley in the passenger seat and knew he was dead and then saw Daniel upside down in the driver's seat and knew he was dead too.
Sgt John Joe McClafferty said it was a traumatic scene with family members there and four young men dead; four very decent young men who had never come to garda attention.
Dr Caitriona Dillion, who performed post mortems on the four young men, said each of them died as a result of multiple head injuries and each of them was intoxicated at the time of the accident.
