By Adrian Rutherford

EASTER celebrations turned to tragedy for a Ballygawley family after a teenager was killed in a head-on collision as he travelled to work, an inquest heard this week.

Ruairi O'Hanlon was driving a Mitsubishi Shogun Jeep which collided with an articulated lorry near the Killeeshil junction of the A4 Road on Good Friday morning last year.

An inquest into the fatal accident heard how Mr O'Hanlon (18), from Garvaghey Hill near Ballygawley, suffered multiple injuries to his head, chest and abdomen from the crash.

Mr O'Hanlon was employed as a digger driver and, on the morning of his death, had been travelling towards Dungannon where he was due to meet work colleagues.

Dungannon Coroner's Court heard that the deceased was approaching a left-hand bend near Killeeshil when his vehicle pulled onto the other lane and into the path of the oncoming lorry.

Adrian Young, a passing motorist who witnessed the head-on collision, described how Mr O'Hanlon's Jeep had "shot past" his vehicle during an overtaking manoeuvre moments before the fatal crash.

Mr Young estimated that the Jeep had been travelling between 85 and 90mph when it overtook his car, although the deceased's family claimed the vehicle was normally capable of reaching a top speed of 75mph.

He said the Jeep returned to the Dungannon-bound lane but, as it approached the bend, it suddenly pulled onto the opposite side of the road and into the path of the lorry, which was being driven by Brendan Diamond from Belfast.

Mr Young said there was "very little time" between the deceased's move across the road and the collision, adding: "There was no way the (lorry) driver would have got stopped".

braked

During a police interview Mr Diamond said he had been driving the lorry towards Ballygawley when he saw the other vehicle coming towards him, adding, "I couldn't do anything so I just braked and held on."

Although the cab of his lorry jack-knifed, Mr Diamond was able to walk away from the crash without serious injury.

Two police witnesses described how extensive damage was caused to the front of both vehicles and confirmed that a breath sample provided by Mr Diamond had tested negative for alcohol.

A police report later found one of the lorry's front brakes had been defective although Mr Diamond said this had not impacted on its braking ability.

George Johnston, a senior scientific officer from Forensic Science Service, said examinations of the scene showed the Jeep was in the oncoming lane when the collision occurred but could not give a definitive explanation as to why this had happened.

He estimated there was less than two seconds between Mr O'Hanlon spotting the oncoming lorry and the moment of impact.

"It is an overriding factor in a lot of accidents," he said. "People don't realise how quickly accidents happen. He would have seen the inevitability but his vehicle would have been unable to move quickly enough."

The report from a post-mortem carried out by Dr Alistair Bentley, the Deputy State Pathologist, was read to the court, which detailed the traumatic injuries suffered by the deceased.

These included fractures of the skull, severe injuries to the brain, a broken neck as well as multiple fractures and injuries to his chest and abdomen. Dr Bentley concluded that the injuries were sufficient to have caused "rapid death".

Coroner Brian Sherrard passed on his sympathies to the O'Hanlon family and extended his gratitude to those who had assisted at the scene of the crash.

"This was a young man who was clearly very much loved and missed," he said. "There is very little good which can be taken from this situation."

'People don't realise how quickly accidents happen. He (Ruairi) would have seen the inevitability but his vehicle would have been unable to move quickly enough'