A 21-year-old Co Meath man had smoked cannabis, drunk several cans of beer and taken cocaine before the car he was driving with four passengers in it crashed into a lamp-post at the junction of Sutton Park and Sutton Road in Dublin, a court heard yesterday.
Keith Bolger, Laytown, Co Meath, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to dangerous driving causing the deaths of Peter O'Rourke (18), Anthony Murphy (18) and Aston Ryan (21) in June 2003 at Sutton, Co Dublin.
The father of one of the dead men said he blamed the drug-dealers more than the driver of the car.
Judge Miriam Reynolds remanded Bolger on bail for sentence tomorrow.
Peter O'Rourke and Anthony Murphy, who had completed their Leaving Cert that day and had got into the car less than an hour before the accident, were pronounced dead at the Mater Hospital. Aston Ryan was pronounced dead after attempts to resuscitate him failed at Beaumont Hospital.
A fourth youth and Bolger survived the crash.
"I don't know why I survived, I wish I could trade places with you," Bolger said in a note read out at the funeral of the young men.
The fathers of Peter and Aston said they did not hold Bolger responsible for their sons' deaths. "My family does not hold Keith responsible," Mr Patrick Ryan said. If anyone was to blame, "it should be the drug-pushers".
Mr Robert O'Rourke said: "I feel it would be an awful tragedy if another family were to be affected by this. I am thinking in particular of Keith's partner and son."
He was referring to Bolger's now five-year-old son whom he had fathered at the age of 16.
Ms Margaret Murphy told Judge Reynolds that she did not know why her son Anthony had got into Bolger's car. He had told her he was going to stay at the O'Rourkes that night after celebrating the last of his exams.
"I never expected to identify my 18-year-old son in a morgue," she said. Anthony's body was so badly damaged she was asked not pull off the sheet which covered his body. Instead she was given "one perfect arm to rub."
The three parents told Judge Reynolds how much they missed their sons and how their lives had been so drastically cut short, leaving black holes and empty voids within the families.
Sgt Michael Brady said that just after 3.40 a.m on June 20th, 2003, a taxi-driver saw Bolger's car travelling at about 70 m.p.h. along Kilbarrack Road.
She noted there were five people in the car and she saw it driving along the right side of the road. About 10 minutes later, the car collided with the lamp-post.
Mr Patrick Gageby SC, for Bolger, told Judge Reynolds that his client was from a decent, hard-working family.
He had been attempting to rid himself of the cocaine habit for some time. He had been off the drug for a while before relapsing a month or so before the accident.
Mr Gageby described the accident as "a typical young man's offence".