A CORONER yesterday called for speed limiter devices to be mandatory in the cars of young motorists after an inquest heard how four teenagers died when their car went out of control at high speed and crashed.
Speed, not alcohol, appeared to be the main factor in the crash, the inquest heard.
Coroner for south Kerry Terence Casey said he believed legislation obliging drivers up to age 25 to have a speed limiter fitted in their cars would hopefully make speed-related fatal accidents a thing of the past.
Mr Casey made his comments at the inquests into the deaths of David Breen (17) and his brother, Kevin (15), from Hazelwood Drive, Ballyspillane, Killarney; Áine Riordan (15), from St John’s Park, Castleisland; and Brian Coffey (19), from Crohane, Fossa, all in Co Kerry.
The four died when a silver Hyundai Ascent driven by David Breen went out of control at Carrigeen, some 6km from Killarney on the main Killarney-Rathmore road, and crashed into a tree at about 7am on August 25th last year.
The inquest heard evidence from forensic crash investigator Garda Margaret Hynes, who examined the scene and estimated that the 10-year-old car had been travelling at between 99.2km/h and 111.9km/h at the point of impact.
Garda Hynes said it appeared that David Breen had lost control of the car when he steered it to the left in an attempt to compensate for earlier oversteering to the right, and that the car sped broadside along the ditch for about 8m, glancing off one tree before crashing into another.
The inquest also heard evidence on the postmortems carried out by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster. David Breen had an alcohol level of just 47mg per 100ml, while Brian Coffey’s level was 33mg, Áine Coffey’s 43mg, while Kevin Breen had no alcohol in his system.
Mr Casey pointed out that the alcohol levels were far below the legal limit of 80mg per 100ml, and that alcohol was not a factor in the crash, which he attributed to the speed at which the car was being driven. “Accidents like this which are caused by speed are very hard to take – look at the devastated families that are left behind. That’s why I’ve called for speed limitators to be fixed on all cars that young people, anyone up to the age of 25, is allowed to drive,” he said after the inquest.
Mr Casey said he had previously made a similar call after the deaths of two young people in a crash on the Killarney to Tralee Road, but it appeared the legislators were paying no heed, and the problem was continuing with further loss of life.
“I think it’s falling totally on deaf ears – they are bringing out legislation where they are blaming drink, but this inquest today just shows that the alcohol readings were very low. Drink was not the cause of it, it was speed.”
He said the problem seemed to affect mainly 18-25-year-olds. “If they can’t drive a fast car, they will be able to control it – I mean you can take that bend out there quite comfortably at 100km/h but they couldn’t, which means they must have been travelling a lot faster than that,” added Mr Casey, who visited the crash scene on the day and saw the carnage.
While educational programmes were worthy, he said, young people didn’t seem to take notice of them. Fixing speed limiters would cut speeds and save lives.