A DRIVER WHO was killed instantly with his friend when the car in which they were travelling was driven the wrong way before colliding with a vehicle driven by an off-duty garda, had a significant level of alcohol in his system at the time, an inquest has heard.
The inquest heard that the off-duty garda, who was seriously injured, was travelling above the speed limit before impact.
Owen Merriman (19), Palmerstown Woods, Clondalkin, and Leigh Mooney (19), Woodford Park Road, Clondalkin, died when the black Fiat Punto in which they were travelling was in collision with a Honda car driven by Garda Damien Greene of Tallaght Garda station.
They were on the N7 outbound lane, about 500 metres north of the Rathcoole exit. Mr Merriman was driving northbound on the southbound carriageway.
Garda Greene, who was driving home after finishing his shift, told the inquest that just as he overtook a vehicle in the middle lane, he remembers his headlights reflecting off an oncoming car’s headlight glass.
“The car had no lights turned on. I applied my brakes and turned my car to the left trying to avoid the oncoming car. Then I remember a loud explosion and a big wave of heat.”
He told the inquest he could see clearly ahead of him, but he did not see any oncoming car or any lights.
The pre-impact velocity of the Honda was 123km/h and of the Fiat, 63km/h, according to a report by forensic collision investigator Sgt Colm Finn.
After the crash there was controversy about the lack of No Entry warning signs at the Rathcoole roundabout where the teenagers drove on to the wrong side of the carriageway. Such signs have since been placed there.
Sgt Finn concluded the signage was not a factor in the collision and that there was no inappropriate signage.
Derek Goraj, taxi driver Derek Collins and Dublin Bus driver Darren Maguire told the inquest that a Honda overtook them travelling above the speed limit of 100km/h on the N7 outbound lane.
“I thought to myself that the driver would want to be careful because there could be a speed trap ahead,” Mr Collins said. “I also thought the driver was mad for doing that high speed.
“”Suddenly there was a loud bang and a puff of smoke in front of me. I did not know what happened but my first thoughts were that the car that had passed me at high speed had lost control of the car and hit the barrier.”
Mr Maguire, the first person on the scene after the crash, said: “There appeared to be what I can only describe as an explosion from the immediate vicinity of the car. I heard an unmerciful thud.”
Damien Lane and Terence McCormack encountered the Fiat Punto travelling against them on the wrong side of the dual carriageway shortly before 6am, and both men and a truck driver had flashed lights at the driver to try to alert him.
When the emergency services arrived, neither of the two teenagers had any signs of life. They were removed by ambulance to Tallaght Hospital where they were pronounced dead.
Toxicology screenings found that the dead men, who had been socialising in Leixlip, Co Kildare, on Saturday night and who were “happily drunk”, according to a friend, had a “significant” amount of alcohol in their systems.
Mr Merriman, who was driving, had 176mg per 100ml of blood in his system. The two had gone to the Loft Pub in Leixlip and on to the O-Zone nightclub with a group of friends, and taken a taxi back to Clondalkin at about 2.30am.
The two later dropped a friend, Stephen Meleady, home in Mr Merriman’s car before leaving to pick someone up in Leixlip.
A jury of five men and three women returned verdicts of death by misadventure in both cases, under the direction of Dublin county coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty, who expressed condolences to the families of both young men on their losses. “They were only teenagers. It’s a very tragic case,” he said.
Outside the court were Leigh Mooney’s parents Caroline and Thomas. Ms Mooney, who last saw her son at 9.30pm that Saturday before he went out, said their family and two other children, Karen (23) and Jamie (12), had been devastated by Leigh’s death.
“Leigh had just turned 19 and two weeks to the day of his birthday, we buried him. He was a great kid. He worked from the time he could and he was just about to go into second year of his apprenticeship in plumbing. We told him he couldn’t have a car until the following year and he was happy with that.”
Mr Mooney said: “We wanted him to be a bit older and a bit wiser before getting a car.”
Ms Mooney added: “Our family is gone. We’re doing a life sentence. Not only do we feel we’ve lost Leigh, but part of the other two [children] and of each other. It’s the devastation that’s left behind.”