A GROUP of friends desperately burned through a car seat belt with cigarette lighters to free a trapped crash victim, an inquest in Donegal heard yesterday.
The inquest into the death of Alice Mullan (20) in a head-on collision at Ballyargus, Redcastle, in the early hours of March 19th, 2005, also heard evidence from Louise Cantwell.
Cantwell (24) received a three-year suspended sentence and a five-year driving ban in July for dangerous driving causing the deaths of Ms Mullan and Kelly Doherty (20), who were rear- and front-seat passengers, respectively, in her white Corsa car.
The friends were travelling home to Carndonagh from a nightclub when the crash happened.
Cantwell described how she had overtaken the Citroën Saxo being driven by another friend, Patricia Logue, and was rounding a bend when she saw the lights of a car ahead.
Paul McLaughlin, one of six people travelling in Ms Logue’s car, described seeing Cantwell’s car up ahead do a “full circle”. The car in which he was travelling ended up under it.
He said he discovered Ms Doherty still breathing but lying under the Corsa with her seat belt on. He and his friends used lighters to burn through the seat belt to free her. They lifted the car to remove her.
Ms Mullan was pronounced dead at the scene. Ms Doherty died several hours later in hospital.
Following a 15-minute deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of unlawful death brought about by a traffic accident.
Donegal coroner Dr John Madden said he had about 14 road accident deaths still to be heard. This was astounding, he said, for a small geographical location such as the Inishowen peninsula. He said if young people could see the enormity of the tragedy visited upon families because of road accidents, they might slow down.