Kerry road-crash death of young Cork musician ruled ‘accidental’ at coroner’s inquest
The KerrymanAn inquest has ruled the death of a young Cork musician in a crash while driving home from Kerry was ‘accidental’.
Rory James Craig, 24, crashed on the N22 just after 7am on December 8, 2024.
On Wednesday, a court in Tralee heard his vehicle veered across the opposite lane without braking and hit a tree at Islandmore, southwest of Killarney, on the Cork road.
Fire consumed the vehicle and soot was found in his trachea, the court heard.
His death was caused from acute carbon monoxide poisoning, the assistant state pathologist told the court.
“He would have been unconscious almost immediately so wouldn’t have been suffering,” said Dr Margot Bolster.
No drugs or alcohol were in his system.
The court also heard from witnesses who tried to help Mr Craig at the scene.
Fire had destroyed much of the car, which sustained substantial frontal damage from the collision, investigator Thomas Brosnan told the court.
“On the balance of probabilities, this appears to be accidental,” concluded the county coroner, Aisling Quilter.
“It is quite possible that he had fallen asleep,” she said.
Ms Quilter acknowledged the witnesses who tried to pull Mr Craig’s body from the wreckage, offered her sympathies to the family and thanked them for attending the inquest.
“It doesn’t bring Mr Craig back, but I’m hopeful it will give more information of what happened that night,” she said to the family.