Families of crash victims to seek independent analysis

The families of two young people who died after their car crashed at high speed and which a Garda patrol car was following at…

The families of two young people who died after their car crashed at high speed and which a Garda patrol car was following at the time, are considering getting an independent expert to analyse CCTV footage of the moments leading up to the crash, the inquest into their deaths was told yesterday.

Dundalk Coroner's Court was told there were 18 or 19 CCTV cameras that had been examined by gardaí who produced footage to the court when the inquest originally opened last month.

Mairéad Boyle (19) and Shane Hoey (20) from Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, died in the crash at the Long Walk, Dundalk, Co Louth, on May 2nd last year.

After the footage was shown last month, the families began to ask questions about the Garda investigation. Coroner Ronan Maguire adjourned it to allow them to get legal representation.

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The footage appeared to show the BMW passing by a shopping centre on the Long Walk just before 3am and some seven seconds before the patrol car passed the same CCTV camera.

Solicitor Paul Tiernan for both families yesterday said there were up to 19 security videos that had been analysed by gardaí and a number of stills (photographs) were made available to him.

"We may need to have them analysed independently in some form," he told Mr Maguire.

Mr Tiernan said Mairéad's mother wished to express "her dissatisfaction with the Garda investigation of this and in particular she is firmly of the view that there was no [ Garda] appeal for independent witnesses."

The coroner said the law was clear and an inquest could not investigate a Garda investigation.

Mr Maguire adjourned to January when, he said, he would recall the two Garda witnesses.