{"id":563800,"date":"2026-07-23T06:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T06:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/563800\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T06:01:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T06:01:15","slug":"accidental-death-verdict-after-musician-killed-in-crash-near-killarney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/563800\/","title":{"rendered":"Accidental death verdict after musician killed in crash near Killarney"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 24-year-old musician who was killed while driving home from a gig in Killarney has been found to have died by accidental death.<\/p>\n

Rory Craig<\/a>, from Togher in Cork, died when his Volkswagen Polo crossed the N22 and crashed into a tree at Islandmore, Clonkeen, Killarney, on 8 December 2024.<\/p>\n

An inquest into his death was held at Tralee Courthouse<\/a> yesterday.<\/p>\n

The inquest heard Mr Craig had performed with a band at a corporate event in Killarney on the night of 7 December.<\/p>\n

A bandmate, Aengus Mac A Bh\u00e1ird, was the last person to see him alive, leaving the venue between 1.20 and 1.40am.<\/p>\n

Off-duty Garda Joseph Rice came upon the crash at around 7 o’clock that morning.<\/p>\n

He said he saw a large fire at the roadside and soon realised a car had struck a tree.<\/p>\n

He said he tried to open the door but was forced back by the flames.<\/p>\n

Forensic collision investigator Garda Sergeant Tom\u00e1s Barry said CCTV footage showed Mr Craig’s car passing through Glenflesk shortly before 7am.<\/p>\n

He found no mechanical defect that could have caused the collision and no evidence of braking.<\/p>\n

He said the car crossed the road at the exit of a bend, travelled 31.5 metres along the opposite verge and struck a tree head-on before catching fire.<\/p>\n

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster said Mr Craig died from acute carbon monoxide poisoning following a road traffic collision.<\/p>\n

No alcohol or drugs were detected in his system.<\/p>\n

Returning a verdict of accidental death, Coroner Aisling Quilter said there was no evidence to suggest otherwise.<\/p>\n

She said it was reasonable to assume Mr Craig had fallen asleep at the wheel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 24-year-old musician who was killed while driving home from a gig in Killarney has been found to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[238237,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-563800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-accidental-death-verdict-after-musician-killed-in-crash-near-killarney","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}