An inquest into the deaths of four young adults in a fatal crash in Clonmel last August has recorded verdicts of accidental death.
The four people died as a result of severe cranio-cerebral trauma from being involved in a road traffic collision on the evening of 25 August at Hillview, Clonmel.
There was a torrential downpour of rain before the incident which happened just after 7.30pm, with a lot of water on the road.
The crash happened hours after three of the victims had received their Leaving Cert results.
Eighteen-year-olds Grace McSweeney, Nicole Murphy and Zoey Coffey all lost their lives in the collision, as did Grace McSweeney's 24-year-old brother Luke McSweeney, who was driving the car which crashed.
Witnesses to the car being driven before the crash said they did not notice any excessive speed on the part of the driver although the two back tyres of the car, a grey 151 BMW coupe, had tread depths below the legal limit of 1.6mm.
The victims were on their way to meet friends in the town with the intention of travelling on to a Leaving Cert results celebration in Carlow that night.
The coroner, Joseph Kelly, said in summing up the evidence that the road was "very much like a flowing river" at the time of the collision, because of the "torrents" which had fallen on a "steep hill".
There were no eye witnesses to the actual crash itself although several local residents and passers-by had seen the car travelling down the hill. At least two said the car was not going at any particular speed. It was calculated by gardaí that it was being driven at speeds of 51 kilometres per hour and 75 kph at different points on the hill, in a zone that was governed by a 50kph speed limit.
"For some unknown reason, it left the roadway and mounted a kerb and hit a wall, resulting in a horrific and tragic collision," the coroner said.
The car overturned outside Hillview Sports Club, causing extensive damage to its roof and other parts of the vehicle.
All four of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene and formally identified later at Tipperary University Hospital in Clonmel by family members.
The crash caused widespread shock and sadness last year, with large crowds attending a vigil in Clonmel two days later and also the funerals of the four victims the following week.
In a statement read out by their solicitor Padraic Hayes in the coroner's court, the McSweeney family on behalf of themselves and the other families thanked all of the emergency services as well as the local community and the people of Ireland for their support in the aftermath of the crash.
The three young women had received their Leaving Cert results that morning and Zoey Coffey arrived to Grace McSweeney's house at about 2.30pm to get ready for their night out.
Grace told her mother, Bridget McSweeney, that another friend, Nicole Murphy, would be arriving to the house and leaving with them to meet friends at the Tesco car park in Clonmel and get on a bus to travel to a Leaving Cert results celebration in Carlow.
Bridget was going to drive them to the car park herself, she told gardaí in a deposition read out in court, but Luke said he was going to the gym anyway and would drop them down. He had been working from home that day.
She saw the car leaving their home and about 10 minutes later, her son Mark came in and said that Luke's car was on its roof on the road. She ran to the scene and met gardaí who were present.
Garda Andrew Kiely, who was the first emergency person at the scene along with Garda Cian O'Sullivan, gave evidence of arriving and seeing the car overturned. He and the other garda lay down on the road to try and see into the car from below and shouted "hello, hello, can you hear me," but got no response.
There was complete silence, he said, apart from the noise of the car's windscreen wipers.
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Luke and Grace's brother, Mark McSweeney, arrived on the scene shortly after the first paramedics arrived, and Bridget McSweeney also arrived. Mark told him the driver of the car was Luke and Bridget told the garda who the passengers were.
Garda Kiely said that, when he got the call from the Garda control centre at about 7.33pm to tell him about the crash, the downpour which had been falling was just beginning to ease. "I'd say it lasted about 10 minutes." Driving conditions at the height of the downpour would have been "very difficult," he said.
A number of witnesses who came upon the scene gave depositions in which they said they could tell that the occupants were dead and that they stood in silence while they awaited the emergency services.
The coroner read out evidence from the post-mortem examinations, all of which found that the four victims had died as a result of severe cranio-cerebral trauma, consistent with being involved in a road crash.
Toxicology tests found no evidence of any alcohol or drugs in the car driver's body.
The appropriate verdict in each case, Mr Kelly said, was one of accidental death.
He offered his sympathies to the families of the young people, as did gardaí.
"Luke, Grace, Nicole and Zoey were all in the prime of their lives and had so much to look forward to and dreams to fulfill," Mr Kelly said. "As they set off on their journey that night, they could never have imagined the catastrophic and tragic outcome that awaited them."
It was a traumatic event for all of the families and the friends of the victims, he said, as well as for the people of Clonmel and all of Ireland. "There was an outpouring of grief both locally and nationally, and I've not doubt the families took great solace from the support they received."
