Anatomy of a Car Crash: Part 4 the verdict

Taxi driver Gearid 'Skull' Scully was killed in the first fatal road collision of 2014 in Ballina. His partner Lorraine speaks of her grief and the plans they shared for their future together. Video: Niamh Guckian

A road traffic collision impacts on the lives of hundreds of people, including the professionals who pick up the pieces after fatal accidents on the roads. Video: Niamh Guckian

Lorraine Devlin, partner of Gearid Scully, a taxi driver who was killed in a head-on collision on New Years Day 2014, at her home in Ballina, Co Mayo. Photograph: Keith Heneghan

Garda Kevin Carey leaving Ballina Coroners Court, Co Mayo after the inquest into the deaths of Gearid Scully and Terence Beagan in a traffic incident at Mount Falcon, Ballina, Co Mayo on January 1st, 2014. Photograph: Keith Heneghan

Coroner Dr Eleanor Fitzgerald arriving at Ballina Coroners Court, Co Mayo for the inquest into the deaths of Gearid Scully and Terence Beagan. Photograph: Keith Heneghan

At about 4.40am on New Years Day, two men died in a collision on a high-quality stretch of the N26, near Ballina, Co Mayo. They were the first fatal road deaths of 2014.

In the months since, Peter Murtagh has been investigating this crash and its aftermath.

On October 30th, the official investigation into the collision ended with an inquest, where a jury of six men and two women drew their conclusions about its causes.

It was a crisp autumn morning outside the court house in Ballina, Co Mayo. Three inquests were scheduled for October 30th; Gearid Scully and Terry Beagans deaths would be dealt with as one case as they died in the same incident.

The two-storey courthouse is well-maintained, painted China blue and pale green. It is on Kevin Barry Street, a road known as the N26 when it exits the town the road on which Scully and Beagan had died in the early hours of New Years Day.

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Anatomy of a Car Crash: Part 4 the verdict