{"id":19487,"date":"2024-12-20T16:42:35","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T16:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/crash-inquest-fails-to-find-why-car-did-not-stop\/"},"modified":"2024-12-20T16:42:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T16:42:35","slug":"crash-inquest-fails-to-find-why-car-did-not-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/crash-inquest-fails-to-find-why-car-did-not-stop\/","title":{"rendered":"Crash inquest fails to find why car did not stop"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"FamilyFamily handout<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Married couple Varena and Paul Creelman, and Varena’s brother Phil Hegarty<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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An inquest into the deaths of three members of a County Londonderry family who died in a road crash has heard the victims were “full of life”, “full of fun” and missed by many.<\/p>\n

A coroner has found the car they were travelling failed to stop at a crossroads near Portglenone in July 2020.<\/p>\n

Husband and wife Paul and Verena Creelman from Kilrea died alongside Mrs Creelman’s brother, Phil Hegarty<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Their vehicle was driving between 30 and 38mph when it did not stop at a junction on Lisnahunshin Road and collided with another car.<\/p>\n

The coroner ruled that the other driver did not cause or contribute to the collision in any way.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She added that the driver of the other vehicle would only have seen their car less than one second before impact.<\/p>\n

At the inquest findings hearing on Friday, the coroner reflected comments from Mikaela Creelman, the daughter of Mr and Mrs Creelman.<\/p>\n

She had described her parents as “full of life” and “full of fun” who had a loving relationship after being married for 34 years.<\/p>\n

The victims’ daughter also said the three victims were all close, and very friendly, adding that Mr Hegarty is “missed by many”. <\/p>\n

Paul Creelman, who was 65, was driving the car when it crashed. <\/p>\n

His daughter had told the inquest that while he was unfamiliar with the roads, he “was a cautious driver” and she “couldn’t understand why he didn’t stop”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The police closed a number of roads following the crash in July 2020<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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This was something the coroner was also unable to ascertain, based on all the evidence and witness statements, saying she could not find why out he did not brake.<\/p>\n

She noted that there was signage before the junction; five raised red-coloured strips; a “stop 100 yds” sign and a stop sign with a yellow-coloured back board nearly 10 yds from the junction.<\/p>\n

Signage of rumble strips had been erected because of a prior collision two years earlier. <\/p>\n

“All signage was in a good position to be seen,” the coroner said. <\/p>\n

“I find he was travelling towards crossroads at approximately 38mph.”<\/p>\n

As Mr Creelman got closer, “he was coasting between 30-38mph”.<\/p>\n

The coroner told the court “he did not brake and continued through the junction without stopping”.<\/p>\n

“The oncoming car was in [its] own lane, within speed limit, and could not have seen the vehicle until one second before impact.<\/p>\n

“The deceased and his two passengers sustained significant injuries and tragically all three died at the scene.” <\/p>\n

The coroner added her personal condolences to the family.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Family handout Married couple Varena and Paul Creelman, and Varena’s brother Phil Hegarty An inquest into the deaths of three members of a County Londonderry family who died in a road crash has heard the victims were “full of life”, “full of fun” and missed by many. A coroner has found the car they were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[558,327,4603,1630,1508,484],"class_list":["post-19487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-n-ireland","tag-car","tag-crash","tag-fails","tag-find","tag-inquest","tag-stop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19489,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19487\/revisions\/19489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}