A teenager was killed while driving at a speed of 124km/h in the wrong direction on the N7 in south Dublin in a bid to avoid gardaí, an inquest has heard.
17-year-old Gerard Prentice, from Rossfield Park in Tallaght, had been involved in a high-speed chase across the Tallaght area a short time earlier.
He suffered fatal injuries when his Peugeot 307 was involved in a head-on collision with a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van on the outside lane of the southbound section of the Naas Road carriageway near Clondalkin at around 12.30am on 25 January 2020.
An inquest at Dublin District Coroner’s Court today heard the father of one, who was breaking a curfew, had managed to elude pursuing gardaí before he performed a U-turn on a slip road of the N7 at Kingswood after noticing a patrol car was exiting the same junction.
The high-speed chase began after he had failed to stop when signalled by a patrol car in Tallaght about ten minutes earlier.
A post-mortem examination revealed the deceased had almost five times the legal level of alcohol in his blood as well as traces of cocaine.
A jury of six men and three women returned a verdict of death by misadventure.
The inquest heard an investigation of the circumstances of the fatal incident by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) had made no findings against any gardaí or other parties.
Garda witness
Several garda witnesses gave evidence that the vehicle being driven by Prentice first came to the attention of a garda patrol car at around 12.20am in the Cookstown area of Tallaght.
Garda Lisa Prendergast, who was driving the patrol car, said the other vehicle was being driven in a “quick and erratic” manner.
She told the hearing that the driver failed to stop after gardaí had activated the blue lights in the patrol car.
Garda Prendergast outlined how Prentice’s vehicle was pursued through the Cookstown Industrial Estate towards Newland’s Cross during which it was travelling at excessive speed, drove the wrong way around several roundabouts and broke a series of red lights.
She estimated that the deceased was travelling at speeds of up to 160km/h while in an area with a 60km/h speed limit and had opened up a gap of around 500 metres with the patrol car.
Garda Prendergast said it seemed Prentice turned off his vehicle’s lights after joining the outbound section of the N7 before reaching an estimated speed of 180km/h.
At that stage, she said a direction was issued to “stand down” the pursuit and to turn the patrol car’s siren off.
The garda expressed surprise at seeing Prentice’s vehicle a short time later at a roundabout at the top of the slip road at Kingswood.
She described having to take evasive action as his vehicle took off down the slip road onto the wrong direction on the N7.
Garda Prendergast said she and her colleagues watched Prentice’s vehicle until it disappeared out of sight.
She recalled seeing smoke rising in the distance on the other side of the N7 after she rejoined the N7 on the citybound side of the carriageway.
‘My life changed completely’ – van driver
On arriving at the scene, the witness said the engine of Prentice’s car was in flames and was threatening to engulf the vehicle.
The inquest heard the victim appeared gravely injured, while his leg was trapped in the vehicle.
Prentice was subsequently pronounced dead at the site of the crash, while a post-mortem examination confirmed he suffered multiple catastrophic injuries.
The inquest heard the driver of the van, Aslan Opiev, would have had no prior warning of any hazard due to Prentice having switched the lights off on his vehicle.
Sgt Patrick McElroy told the inquest that the outcome could have been much worse but for a last-second evasive action taken by Mr Opiev.
In evidence, Mr Opiev said the other vehicle was driving so fast that he had no time to react to seeing it coming towards him.
The inquest heard he suffered two broken legs and several fractured vertebrae and spent ten days at Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) and was out of work for a long period.
“My life changed completely,” said Mr Opiev.
Two other passengers in his van, another male and his young son, suffered soft-tissue injuries.
GSOC official Fiona Jarret who was appointed as family liaison officer, said the deceased’s sister Nadine had told her that she did not know her brother had a car or who owned it.
Ms Jarret said Ms Prentice was not aware he had any plans to go out that night as he was under a curfew which required him to be at home.
The witness said the deceased’s father Gerry Prentice subsequently told her that his son had bought the Peugeot 2003-registered car about a week before the collision for €140.
She was informed that the victim had not parked the vehicle outside his home as cars in the area were regularly stolen.
The victim’s mother Elaine Prentice gave evidence of formally identifying her son’s body in the mortuary at TUH.
At the conclusion of the inquest, the coroner offered her sympathy to Prentice’s family and all other parties impacted by the tragic event and observed it had been difficult to listen to such “harrowing evidence.”
