The driver was screaming ...she just kept screaming
Witnesses tell of woman’s distress after crash which killed four pals
WITNESSES have told how they saw a driver screaming in pain as her friends lay dead in a car that had ploughed into a van.
The horrific details were revealed on the first day of the trial of a young woman over a crash in which her four pals were killed.
Dayna Kearney was driving the Volkswagen Polo in which the four young women were killed near Athy, Co Kildare, on January 6, 2015.
The 23-year-old pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving causing the deaths of Gemma Nolan, 19, Charmaine Carroll, 20, Niamh Doyle, 19, all from Carlow, and 19-year-old Aisling Middleton, from Athy.
She also denies driving a defective vehicle, with the State claiming all four tyres on the car were not inflated properly.
The trial began yesterday in Kildare Circuit Criminal Court, sitting in Naas, before Judge Eoin Garvan and a jury of five men and seven women.
Prosecuting barrister Daniel Boland told the court the fatal crash happened at 9.45pm.
The smash happened on a section of new road near Athy – Kearney was driving her grey Volkswagen Polo car, and her four pals were passengers.
Mr Boland said at some point they were on a straight stretch of road with a good surface.
As a white transporter van approached the car “veered to the wrong side of the road”.
The Polo crashed passenger side into the front of the van – Mr Boland said that the four women died “almost instantly”.
VEERED
Kearney, from Crossneen, Co Carlow, was badly injured in the collision.
The barrister told the jury the State’s case would be that the tyres of the car “were not at the correct inflated pressure – and combined with the load the car veered onto the opposite side”.
Witness Tracey Norton gave evidence she was coming from work in Athy, travelling on the road behind the van.
She said she came up behind the white van, which moved to the hard shoulder
Ms Norton believed it was pulling in to let her overtake.
She added: “I saw a car coming towards the van – the van pulled in and I thought he was letting me pass.”
Just as this happened he pulled out again and the car “shot across the front of the van”.
The impact happened and Ms Norton stopped her car.
She told the court: “I jumped out and ran to the car, the one with the other occupants, I didn’t have my mobile with me so I ran back to my car. I made calls to 999 and then I went back to the car and the driver was screaming – she just kept screaming.”
The court heard a bus pulled in and the scene was approached by three men who were trainee doctors. As this stage the van burst into flames and Ms Norton told the court the bus driver and other men attempted to move it.
Bus driver Paul Fitzgerald was travelling his route between Dublin and Clonmel – his next stop was Athy. He said: “I came to a stretch of new road that was wide, it was a dark night but the conditions were good.
“As I came close I saw two people with lights. As I got closer they were using the lights of their mobile phones waving me down.
“They were two foreign lads, in broken English, they were hysterical and just kept saying, ‘help the girls, help the girls’.”
Mr Fitzgerald told the court that after assessing the scene he asked was there anyone on board the bus with medical training. Two men said they were trainee doctors.
When he went to the car he knew it was a major accident. He explained: “I knew she [the driver] was the only one alive”.
Gda Deirdre Collins told the court that on the night of the incident she was conducting a checkpoint nearby when she received a call.
When she arrived the officer saw the fire service and ambulance already there.
She said: “I saw a van on fire and a silver car in the grass verge. I made my way to the second vehicle with five females in the car.
“I believed the driver was the only
one showing signs of life. It was very clear the driver was in some distress – she was screaming in serious pain.
“When she was removed to the ambulance she continued to be in serious distress.”
The gardai could not speak to the young woman as she was too badly injured and they identified her as Dayna Kearney from her driving licence in a bag in the car.
Sgt Donal O’sullivan told the court he took a cautioned statement from Ms Kearney in May 2015. She said she had been in Kilkenny with her four friends. They had been ice skating and then went to Mcdonald’s and then left to travel home.
In this statement, she added she could not remember anything after leaving the fast food restaurant.
Forensic collision investigator Gda Rachel Murdiff said she examined the car and the scene.
She told the court it was her findings that the car slid across the road into the path of the van.
Gda Murdiff said speed was not a factor in the collision. Polish national Mariusz Wawrzos was a passenger in the van.
With help from an interpreter he said he and his friend were travelling back having bought a scooter in Athy.
He told the court he saw the Volkswagen car slide left to right and then crash into the van.
He said: “It was moving left and right, like a snake, it moved three times.”
The trial continues today at Kildare Circuit Criminal Court sitting in Naas.