The coroner for south Cork, Frank O'Connell, has told an inquest that the weekend road crash in which four young Polish men died was one of the worst he ever dealt with.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster told the inquest at Midleton Courthouse yesterday that Sylwester Szczyrow (25), Andrzej Wojciechowski (27), Radoslaw Nowak (23) and Rafal Gorski (28) would have died "very rapidly" after the collision with a truck at Goggins Hill, Ballinhassig, Co Cork, on Good Friday morning.
The four men, all from Pisz in northeastern Poland, were travelling in a left-hand drive, Polish-registered Opel Astra driven by Mr Szczyrow when it was in collision with a truck driven by a Cork man in his 30s.
The coroner heard evidence from Garda Declan Lynch, Ballinhassig Garda station, of how he went to the scene after receiving a report of the crash at 10.20pm. He said Dr Ger O'Connor pronounced all four men dead at the scene.
Details were taken of their positions in the car and their clothing for identification purposes before they were removed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital for postmortems.
The inquest also heard evidence from Polish woman Justyna Krystanik, who was living in the same house as Mr Nowak at Longrange, Ballincollig, and who identified his body and those of the other men, who lived at Parknamore Rise, Ballincollig.
Det Sgt Gerry McCarthy, Bandon Garda station, said he was accompanied to the scene by a Polish priest, Fr Piotr Galus.
Dr Bolster said Mr Szczyrow died from multiple injuries.
Mr Gorski and Mr Nowak both died from haemorrhage and shock.
Mr Wojciechowski died from severe head injuries.
Mr O'Connell said it was one of the worst crashes he had ever come across in his time as coroner for south Cork.
He paid particular tribute to Ms Krystanik for her courage in assisting the gardaí in identifying the bodies in what was a deeply distressing time for her.
"I would like to offer to the families and next of kin who lost their loved ones, sympathy on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Ireland . . . it was one dreadful blow to the Polish community working in Ireland as well as to their friends in Ballincollig," he said.
Mr O'Connell also paid tribute to Garda Lynch who had been working around the clock over the weekend to make sure the inquest could be opened so that death certificates could be issued for the four men and their bodies released to their families.
Mr O'Connell told friends of the four dead men that death certificates would be issued yesterday to allow their bodies to be released.
He adjourned the inquest for mention only to Bandon on June 30th.
After the inquest, Grace Gliwinska, a director of a company involved in the recruitment of Polish workers in the Cork area, paid tribute to the men, whom she got to know after they came to Ireland in search of work.
"They were among the best people I've ever met.
"I only know them since they came to Ireland but I never met people like them before.
"If only one person was working and three weren't working, the one person was paying for the three others in the house - they helped each other all the time."