Young woman died on stairs after friends fell ‘like dominos’
A YOUNG woman died while climbing the stairs at a house party after one of her friends lost his footing and fell backwards creating a ‘domino’ effect, an inquest has heard.
Student Sophie Coll, 19, from Barna, Galway, was ascending the stairwell with three friends when one of them ‘slipped’ resulting in the group falling backwards like ‘dominos’.
Limerick Coroner’s Court heard how Ms Coll was the only one who was injured, and suffered a fatal skull fracture when her head hit the tiled floor where she fell.
The second-year University of Limerick student was at house party in Stanford Close, near UL, on September 25, 2017, when the ‘freak’ fall occurred.
She had been with her friends Zoe Patterson and Keely McGrath, and earlier they had all attended a birthday party in another house together.
Ms Patterson and Ms Keely said they had consumed ‘a few cans of beer’ on the night but they were not inebriated.
Ms Coll had also consumed some beer and had also possibly consumed some vodka on the night, the inquest heard.
At the house party the three girls met another friend Darragh Hannify, a fellow business student from Clarenbridge, Co. Galway.
The inquest heard Mr Hannify was leading the four friends up the stairs when he suddenly lost his footing and fell backwards.
Mr Hannify, who was not present at yesterday’s inquest, told gardaí he consumed ‘about two cans’ and some ‘vodka’ on the night.
‘I was halfway up the stairs, I grabbed the bannister, I bumped into it. I kind of slipped back, I know I bumped into someone, I think it was Zoe,’ he stated in his deposition.
‘When I looked back, Sophie was on the ground at the bottom of the stairs.’
Mr Hannify said a crowd then gathered around Ms Coll and that someone called for an ambulance.
Zoe Patterson, from Glanmire, Co. Cork, told gardaí Mr Hannify ‘appeared to lose his balance’ before stumbling on the stairs.
She said they all fell back ‘like dominos’ but that she managed to stabilise herself by grabbing hold of the bannister.
‘In a split second Sophie flew past me backwards before hitting tiles on the hallway floor,’ she stated in her deposition.
Keely McGrath, from Glenbrook,
She suffered a fatal skull fracture
Lyne, Aherlow, Co. Tipperary, stated Mr Hannify ‘kind of wobbled back and pushed back on us like dominos’ as the group went upstairs.
An ambulance, dispatched from Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, reached the house within 40 minutes after receiving the call.
Pathologist Dr Gabor Laskai said in his opinion, that due to Ms Coll’s ‘very severe’ injuries, nothing could have been done to save the young woman.
A post mortem found Ms Coll had suffered ‘extensive brain damage’.
Ms Coll’s parents had been travelling in France at the time of their daughter’s fatal fall.
Returning a verdict of accidental death, due to a severe skull fracture, Dr McNamara expressed his sympathies to Ms Coll’s loved ones and friends.