Double fatality recalled as inquest told car lost control due to 'excessive speed'

Two young Donegal men were killed when the car in which they were driving lost control and careered into the path of an oncoming car.

Jamie Bonner a 19-year-old from Carnmore Road, Dungloe who was a passenger in the car died instantly on the night of September 1, 2020, while driver Michael McGinley, from Faymore, Creeslough who was 21 at the time, passed away as a result of his injuries 26 days later in hospital.

An inquest into the double fatality was held by Donegal coroner Dr Denis McCauley at Letterkenny courthouse on Friday.

The inquest heard how the Volkswagen Golf in which they were travelling went out of control at Derryart on the N56 between Creeslough and Portnablagh and collided with an Audi A4.

Mr Joe Friel, the station officer at Falcarragh Fire Station, attended the scene at 9.53pm and observed two vehicles, the Audi A4 sideways on the road and the Golf in the bushes,

A front seat passenger, Mr Bonner, in the Volkswagen Golf was ‘unresponsive’ while the other two males were still breathing.

Mr Friel recounted the process of the fire service personnel having to use cutting equipment to remove the occupants from the vehicle, which was covered with a salvage sheet. He said the location in question was ‘not straightforward; it’s a quick, sweeping corner’.

Brian Maguire, who was driving the Audi A4, told the inquest that he spent 12 weeks in a body brace after suffering broken bones in his back.

Mr Maguire said he had left Falcarragh around 8.45pm pm the night in question and stopped for diesel in Creeslough around 9.25pm.

As he drove past the graveyard, approaching the hilltop, he saw sweeping lights which he believed to be an approaching vehicle.

“The next recollection is that I saw a car coming towards me on my side of the road and it seemed to be out of control,” Mr Maguire said. “I had no time to react. I just saw the other car and the impact. It was like an explosion all around me.”

Mr Maguire recalled how the radio was still playing and he remembered the ‘stinging’ pains. He ‘crawled’ out of his car and said that he was afraid his car would go on fire.

“Everything after that is mixed up,” he said. “I remember a paramedic put a blanket around me and I remember the brother of the man driving the other car asking how I was.”

Mr Maguire, a native of Belfast, said he visits a holiday home in Dunfanaghy most weekends and is familiar with the road.

Witness Martin Breslin told how he came on the scene of the accident just minutes after it happened and called 999 at 9.29pm. Mr Breslin recalled Mr Maguire being out of his car an appearing to be in pain and was bent over, complaining that his neck and back were sore.

Mr Breslin described the horrific scene that he met when he approached the Volkswagen Golf, which he said was ‘crushed’.

He saw a male passenger and checked for a pulse, but there was none, while there were two other males in the car, one in the driver’s seat and one in the back seat.

Mr Breslin aided the man in the back seat while another man attended to the driver. 

“Time seemed to stand still,” Mr Breslin recalled.

A third man, James Gallagher, who was a rear seat passenger in the Golf, suffered non-life threatening injuries in the accident.

Garda Eamon Gallagher said a doctor from NoWDOC pronounced Jamie Bonner as deceased at 11.31pm and his remains were taken under Garda escort to the mortuary at Letterkenny University Hospital, where his father later formally identified his son.

Michael McGinley survived the accident initially, but passed away in the intensive care unit at Letterkenny University Hospital on September 27, 2020. Mr McGinley had what Dr McCauley described as “very significant brain injuries and unfortunately they are not compatible with survival. Because of the disfunction in the brain, his body slowed down and he died”.

Both cars were extensively damaged as a result of the impact.

“The sheer level of damage to both vehicles was ‘catastrophic’,” Sergeant Gerard McCauley, a forensic collision investigator said.

Both cars were overall in a serviceable and road worthy condition pre-accident, although the inquest heard that the two front tyres on the Golf were worn below the legal tyre thread depth.

All occupants in the vehicles were wearing seat belts at the time of the collision.

Sergeant McCauley said weather was not a factor, but the road was wet as there had been showers that night.

The road was appropriately marked and signposted and Sergeant McCauley said the Golf had rounded the bend ‘at a speed that prohibited it from remaining on its own side of the road’. He said the Golf drifted across the road because of ‘under-steering due to excessive speed’.

The white Audi being driven by Mr Maguire had taken avoidance action and was braking heavily. “He did react, but he just didn’t have enough time to react more,” Sergeant McCauley said.

There was no way of determining the speed the vehicles were travelling at at the time of the collision, Sergeant McCauley explained.

Dr McCauley said Michael McGinley died as a result of severe brain injuries sustained in a road traffic collision and returned a verdict of an accidental death.

The coroner said Jamie Bonner died as a result of multiple injuries sustained in a road traffic collision. A verdict of accidental death was also returned in the case of Mr Bonner, who died instantaneously.

Dr McCauley said: “We always fear when our children go out we fear the actual circumstances. The major issue is to preserve life at the scene, but one issues is try contact family members and it is an awful thing for family to receive, particularly for a parent about a child.”

Dr McCauley offered his sympathy to the bereaved families and paid tribute to the emergency services. He said: “Accidents occur in Donegal quite frequently. We almost expect people to come out and do their duty. It is a really difficult circumstance, particularly when it involves young people.”

Solicitor for the Bonner family, Mr Cormac Hartnett, thanked the emergency services and others who attended to Jamie on the night.