A TEENAGE MOTORIST was killed while driving at a speed of 124km/h in the wrong direction on the Naas Road carriageway in Dublin in a bid to avoid gardai after having been involved a short time earlier in a high-speed chase across the Tallaght area.
Gerard Prentice (17) from Rossfield Park, Tallaght, Co Dublin 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 N7 near Clondalkin around 12.30am on January 25, 2020.
An inquest at Dublin District Coroner’s Court yesterday 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 postmortem 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 had made no findings against any gardaí or other parties.
Several Garda witnesses gave evidence that the vehicle being driven by Mr 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 Mr 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.
The witness observed that Mr Prentice had swerved to avoid hitting another car when he drove through a red light at the entrance to Newlands Golf Club.
Garda Prendergast said it appeared that Mr Prentice had turned off the lights of his vehicle 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 Mr 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 Mr 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 had proceeded to rejoin the N7 on the citybound side of the carriageway.
On arriving at the scene, the witness said the engine of Mr 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.
Mr Prentice was subsequently pronounced dead at the site of the crash, while a postmortem confirmed he suffered multiple catastrophic injuries.
In reply to questions from the coroner, Aisling Gannon, Garda Prendergast said she initially decided to stop the deceased’s vehicle as she had concern it posed “an increased level of danger to other road users.”
A forensic collision investigator, Sergeant Patrick McElroy, said Mr Prentice had been timed at travelling at 124km/h by cameras just before the angular head-on collision.
Sgt McElroy said it appeared that the driver had been attempting to perform a U-turn on the carriageway just before the crash.
He also observed that there was no sign of any emergency braking by the deceased.
Sgt McElroy said the driver had shown no regard for his safety or that of other road users.
The inquest heard the driver of the van, Aslan Opiev, would have had no prior warning of any hazard due to Mr Prentice having switched the lights off on his vehicle.
Sgt McElroy said the outcome could have been much worse but for a last-second evasive action taken by Opiev.
In evidence, 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 and was out of work for a long period.
“My life changed completely,” said Opiev.
While he expressed fear at the time that he might never drive again because of his injuries, he informed the court that he had recently resumed driving.
Two other passengers in his van, another male and his young son, suffered soft-tissue injuries.
A 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.
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 03-reg 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 Mr Prentice’s family and all other parties impacted by the tragic event and observed it had been difficult to listen to such “harrowing evidence.”
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