A TEENAGE mother and her three-month-old daughter died in a two-vehicle collision when a tyre, weakened by handbrake turns, burst, an inquest in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, heard on Tuesday.
Kerry Anne Meehan (16) and her daughter Neisha, Doochary, Fintown, had been passengers in Christopher Hanlon’s car on June 16th, 2008 when a rear tyre blew out and caused the car to crash into an oncoming 4x4 at Tullygay, Letterkenny.
The force of the impact was such that the car hit the front of the 4x4, driven by Alan Scott, then spun and hit the vehicle’s trailer, overturning it and the 39 sheep it was carrying.
Garda Det Sgt Michael Carroll told the inquest that he arrived on the scene of the crash at 9.10pm. Hanlon was in the driver’s seat of the Toyota being attended to by ambulance personnel. Mr Scott, in the 4x4, was being seen to by members of the fire brigade.
Dr Liz Maxwell, from NowDoc, pronounced Ms Meehan dead at the scene.
Garda Joanna Connolly told the inquest that a witness at the scene said they saw baby blankets and a baby’s bottle in the rear of the car where the baby seat had been attached.
Ambulance and fire crews checked the car and found the baby underneath the rear of the front passenger seat.
Ambulance crew and the doctor placed her in an ambulance and brought her to Letterkenny General Hospital trying unsuccessfully to resuscitate her. Neisha was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Prof Aidan Sweeney, who carried out the postmortems, told the inquest that Kerry Anne and her baby Neisha died as a result of head injuries.
Sgt John McDaid, a Garda PSV inspector, inspected both vehicles a week after the crash. He told the inquest the 4x4 had been in good working order.
He described the rear tyres of the Toyota as being excessively worn in patches.
“The tyre was defective in pre-accident condition – a section of tread was damaged and scuffed off, damaged to such an extent that the driver would have to have been aware of its condition. The damage would be consistent with excessive use of the handbrake . . .
“It would have taken months to do that damage. It was as if part of the tyre had been shaved off.”
In November last year, Hanlon was sentenced to 240 hours of community service and disqualified from driving for eight years after he pleaded guilty to causing the death by dangerous driving of his partner and child.