Family photosThe driver of car that hit a bus and split in half, killing three people including himself, had been drinking and faced being charged if he had survived, an inquest has heard.
Jesse Owen, 18, and two of his four passengers, Morgan Smith, 18, Callum Griffiths, 19, died when they were thrown from an Audi A1 in Coedely, Rhondda Cynon Taf, on 11December 2023.
Toxicological tests showed Mr Owen had 113mg of alcohol per 100ml in his blood – the legal limit is 80mg per 100ml.
Recording conclusions of death by road traffic collision, coroner Graeme Hughes said speed caused Mr Owen to lose control, but his “level of intoxication is unlikely to have made a material contribution to the collision”.
The court heard the Audi was heavily damaged and split in two, but had no defects that would have caused the split and its tyres and brakes were in good condition.
The investigation found that the vehicle was travelling at about 51mph (82km/h).
If the car had been driven at 20mph (32km/h) it was unlikely there would have been a loss of control, the coroner was told.
Police investigators said it was not possible to say if the teens were wearing seatbelts and Mr Hughes was told that, had he survived, Mr Owen could have been charged with causing death by dangerous driving.
Front-seat passenger Ellis Williams was the only “walking wounded” survivor, while the others received life-changing injuries.
In a statement, Mr Williams told the court he had heard others in the car calling for the driver to slow down.
He said that in the moments before the crash “I thought we were going fast. I heard someone say ‘woh, woh, woh’ “.
He told the inquest he looked up and saw that “Jesse looked scared”.
After the crash he said he looked to his right and saw the driver’s seat was empty. He added that “the car had split in half into two parts”.
He said he looked around “screaming” and saw the others on the floor.
Mr Williams said it had been the day of his father’s funeral and that they had come from the wake following the funeral.
Initially, the group had been to a pub before moving on to Tonyrefail Workingman’s Club, where witnesses described them as each having bought drinks.
One member of bar staff said she had asked them for ID and had served them three alcoholic drinks each.
Luca Watkins, a friend of the group, said in a statement that they were leaving to go to either Coedely or Cardiff.
He said: “We saw them leave as a group, within minutes I’d heard there’d been a crash in the Coedely area.”
The court heard that the driver was not going to remain out with the group, but was just going to take them to Cardiff because he had work in the morning.
Witness Martin Russell told the inquest he was waiting to pull out from a junction and saw the car passing “at high speed”.
He said the road had a 20mph limit and the car was travelling “exceptionally fast” and estimated the the speed to be about 50-60mph (80-97km/h).
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone drive so fast on that road,” he said.
Hugh John said in a statement that he was walking his dog on Ely Valley Road and the speed led him to say to a friend that the car was driving fast.
He said he recognised the car as belonging to the son of his friend and saw “lots of heads” in the car. It had to “drive in the middle of the road over the chevrons to hold the line” as a result of the speed it was travelling.
The coroner was shown CCTV which showed the car strike the front of the bus sideways and then travel some distance further along the road.
Driver ‘not a risk taker’
The court has heard that it was dark and that it had been raining, but it was not raining at the time of the incident.
In a statement from his parents, Jesse was described as “a safe, careful and considerate driver” who drove almost daily.
They said they had impressed upon him the importance of not drinking and driving and that he “was not a risk taker or reckless in his life”.
But the coroner was told that had he survived, Mr Owen could have been charged with causing death by dangerous driving.
Mr Griffiths was described as a “talented kickboxer” who had “found his vocation as a barber”, while Mr Smith was described by his mother in a statement as “a talented boxer”.
The court has been shown CCTV images of the teenagers leaving the workingmen’s club together, and images of the car at various locations along its journey.
