A teenager who died when she was ejected from the car in which she was a front-seat passenger as it plunged into a field on the Cork-Kerry border had not been wearing a safety belt.
The Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee heard that Caitlin Taylor, 14, had taken off her seatbelt when she dropped her mobile phone, and had not re-fastened it.
Sarah O'Connell, of Sean Moylan Park, Mallow, County Cork, denies a charge of careless driving causing the death of Ms Taylor on Sunday, June 15, 2014, at Knockeenahone, Scartaglen.
Ms O’Connell, the driver of the car, was an unaccompanied learner driver, the trial before a jury of seven women and five men heard.
Caitlin Taylor of Gouldshill, Mallow, Co Cork, who would have turned 15 on 24 June, had asked Ms O'Connell, then aged 20, to drive her to Scartaglen that Sunday evening when they met in a shop in Mallow, Ms O'Connell had told gardaí.
They left Mallow around 9.30pm and were 60km into their journey and just five kilometres from Scartaglen when Ms O'Connell's car failed to take a bend, went over a mound and the car dropped two metres into a low-lying field, before tumbling a number of times and ejecting Ms Taylor.
Ms O'Connell was a learner driver, and did not have 'L' plates.
She was unaccompanied and had been driving for about eight months at the time.
She was fully insured, the car was taxed and in good order and had its NCT, and she was not speeding.
The court heard she has not driven since the accident.
Ms Taylor was found 20 feet from the badly damaged car, with the front windscreen alongside her.
She died immediately from injuries sustained in the incident, which occurred around 11pm, according to the autopsy findings of assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster, which was read to the jury by Tom Rice, prosecuting counsel.
Neither woman had alcohol or drugs and it was most likely that Ms O'Connell too had not been wearing a safety belt at the time, the trial was told.
Also in the car was Ms O'Connell’s 18-month-old daughter. She was found unharmed, and still strapped into her booster seat.
They had driven 60km from Mallow and were five kilometres from Scartaglin when the grey Toyota Yaris went straight across the road, and instead of taking a medium bend, plunged two metres into a low-lying field, tumbled a number of times before resting on its four wheels, Garda forensic examiner James O'Brien said.
Garda O'Brien was on the scene at 12.30am, just over an hour after it occurred.
The road surface was dry. There were county council cones at the point where the car entered the field, as the council intended carrying out signage and remedial work, but the work had not yet started.
The car had been travelling in or around the speed limit of 80km an hour, and Ms O'Connell had not been breaking the speed limit, he said.
The car lost its rear bumper, all the glass was shattered, the roof was damaged and shoes and clothes were strewn around the field.
Ms O'Connell suffered fractures to her lower back, her shoulder was dislocated and she was taken by ambulance to Kerry General Hospital.
Ms O'Connell's prepared statement and subsequent interview of August 2014 were read to Garda Declan Leader by Mr Rice.
She had gone by appointment at Mallow Garda station in August.
Ms O'Connell said she remembered how Ms Taylor had taken off her safety belt to retrieve her phone which had fallen and had not put her safety belt back on.
She had known Ms Taylor for two years as "she hangs around with the same people" as herself, Ms O'Connell said.
That Sunday evening when she went to Foley's shop in Mallow, she met Caitllin Taylor.
"She wanted a lift to Scartaglen. She said she wanted to meet a fellow. She did not tell me who he was," Ms O'Connell said.
They had stopped in Ballydesmond when Ms Taylor said she wanted to put on make-up.
Before the accident Ms Taylor's phone had rung and she had dropped it.
She took off her belt to retrieve her phone and had not put the seat belt back on before the accident which happened very soon afterwards, Ms O'Connell said in her statement.
Asked if she had a full licence she said she did not, and she was not displaying ‘L’ plates, or accompanied by a qualified driver.
Ms O'Connell was a learner driver and had got her provisional licence eight months previously and had taken 10 lessons. She was not used to night driving.
A single mum, living with her parents, she helped in her parents' horse rearing business.
She believed she had hit a pot hole but was not certain.
When gardaí put it to her if it was possible that she had been distracted by Caitlin dropping her phone and taking off her safety belt, she said this was a possibility.
Civil proceedings are being taken, Mark Nichols, defence senior counsel said. The trial was also told how the late Ms Taylor's family did not speak to Ms O'Connell at the funeral.
Dazed and distraught at the scene, and concerned for her friend, Ms O'Connell was seeing a counsellor and was getting flashbacks and not been sleeping after the accident, the trial was also told.
Closing speeches are being heard and Judge Thomas O'Donnell is to charge the jury on tomorrow.
