‘He was screaming out in anguish and begging me not to leave him’: Man tells of desperate fight to save friend after horror crash which killed five teenagers
By James Dunn For Mailonline 17:25 BST twenty six Oct 2015, updated 20:07 BST twenty six Oct two thousand fifteen
- Five teenagers died in a tragic crash in South Yorkshire last November
- Jonathan Earp was driving ahead of them and went back to attempt and help
- He found friend Arpad Core, Legal, trapped but was incapable to release him
- Held his mitt as he screamed until ambulance came – but he died later
- Coroner today recorded verdict of accidental death for all five teenagers
A youthful man despairingly attempted to save his friend’s life as he screamed in ache after a tragic car crash that killed five teenagers, an inquest heard.
Jonathan Earp was railing in a car ahead of another group in South Yorkshire last November when the car behind them all of a sudden collided with another coming the opposite way.
They stopped the car and Jonathan rushed to the scene to find four of the people in the car unconscious and the only one he knew, Arpad Kore, Legal, looking startled as he fought for his life.
Mr Earp told the coroner that he could smell petrol and frantically attempted to open the door of the mangled Toyota Corolla, while Mr Kore screamed in anguish and begged him to get him out.
But the door wouldn’t open and all he could do was hold his forearm. Mr Kore died that night, along with Blake Cairns, 16, Jordanna Goodwin, 16, Megan Storey, 16, and driver Bartosz Bortniczak, Legitimate.
He said: ‘The smell of petrol was everywhere. I attempted to get to Arpad but I couldn’t get the door open as it had crushed him. I went round to attempt the other door and then I heard shrieking from Arpad.
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‘He was conscious and he was talking. He was begging me to get him out of the car, begging me not to leave him until the ambulance came.’
Mr Earp told Doncaster Coroner’s Court that he and Ben York, in a Vauxhall Corsa, met up with five teenagers in a Toyota Corolla in the car park of a McDonald’s in Balby, Doncaster.
He said the two cars then set off towards Conisbrough in the foggy conditions, intending to drive around the area.
He was conscious and he was talking. He was begging me to get him out of the car, begging me not to leave him until the ambulance came Jonathan Earp, friend of Arpad Kore
Mr Earp was asked about evidence the court heard from another witness who said he had seen two cars side-by-side at traffic lights before the scene of the accident on the A630.
The witness – Michael Staton – said in a statement read to the court that the cars were revving their engines and ‘set off like a dragster begin’.
Mr Staton said: ‘It was demonstrable they were racing each other away from the lights.’
He said he remembered thinking to himself: ‘That’s a recipe for disaster’.
But Mr Earp said the Vauxhall and the Toyota were not racing and the two cars were always behind each other and not side-by-side.
He said Ben York, who was driving the Corsa, was a good driver and he noticed he was doing about 60mph shortly before the conditions in the 60mph zone.
Kathryn Grayling, who co-ordinated paramedics at the scene, said: ‘The conditions on the night were absolutely horrific.’
The driver of the SEAT, Gary Ward, who was also injured in the crash, said he came across the Toyota all of a sudden ahead him and it was sideways across the road.
He told the inquest: ‘It wasn’t there one minute and the car was there the next.’
Mr Ward confirmed the conditions were very foggy. He said he was travelling to work as a steelworker in Scunthorpe at the time.
In another statement read to the court, Bartosz’s mother, Agnieszka Bortniczak, said her son had passed his driving test six months before the crash, which happened in November last year.
The conditions on the night were absolutely horrific Kathryn Grayling, Ambulance Service
Mrs Bortniczak said she did not have any concerns about her son’s driving and when he left that evening he was his ‘usual, cheerful, blessed self’.
Blake, Jordanna, Arpad and Megan were sixth-formers at Danum Academy in Doncaster and warehouse worker Bartosz was a former pupil.
Bartosz and Blake were pronounced dead at the scene of the horror smash on Sheffield Road, near Conisbrough, while Jordanna was rushed to Doncaster Royal Infirmary, but died around an hour later.
Both Megan and Arpad were transferred to a specialist trauma ward at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield but later died from their injuries.
Crash collision investigator PC Adrian Burgoyne told the inquest there was no evidence the crash was caused by racing or other reckless behaviour.
He said: ‘My private belief is that this collision has occurred not due to any sort of dangerous or reckless act.
‘I think it’s a minor error of judgment.’
He said: ‘Such a minor mistake as that has led to such tragic circumstances.’
The officer said: ‘The weather conditions were absolutely appalling.’
He said it was a ‘moist, damp, very pathetic night’ and visibility was at best one hundred metres and at worst fifty metres.
PC Burgoyne said he believes the Toyota ended up in the position it was due to a classic case of ‘lift-off over-steer’.
He said he thinks the driver took his foot off the accelerator and applied the brakes as he negotiated a right-hand arch.
He said this would have caused the vehicle to rotate and skid sideways.
The officer said the Toyota was fitted with an insurance company’s ‘black box’ data recorder which demonstrated it was travelling at 73.Three mph one hundred metres before the collision.
But he said tests demonstrated the car would have been able to securely take the arch at the speed if the driver had kept his foot on the accelerator.
PC Burgoyne praised the work of firefighters and paramedics at the scene.
He said: ‘In twenty years as a police officer – fifteen years in the collision investigation department – I have never seen a more concerted effort by emergency services to save lives.
‘It was something I have never seen before. It was awesome what was done by ambulance and fire service staff.’
Investigator PC Andy Brown said the driver of the Corsa was arrested after the crash on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. But there was insufficient evidence to climb on a prosecution.
He said witnesses had referred to cars racing on the A630 before the collision but it had not been possible to positively identify the vehicles referred to.
PC Brown said that there had been two other fatal accidents on the same open up of road in the last decade.
In January two thousand eleven three teenagers, aged 14, 15, and 16, died after the car they were in hit a tree just one hundred metres away from this crash and was ripped apart.
Doncaster coroner Nicola Mundy asked PC Brown if he thought reducing the speed limit in the area would be good idea.
He said that moving the transition from 60mph to 40mph another two hundred metres further from Conisbrough would be ‘the quickest, cheapest and easiest thing for the council to do’.
The coroner today recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Ms Mundy said she agreed with collision investigators that the most likely cause of the accident was that Mr Bortniczak took his foot off the accelerator as he negotiated a right-hand arch, causing a classic case of ‘lift-off over-steer’
Recording her conclusion, Ms Munday said: ‘It was a most tragic of accidents – five youthful people who had their lives ahead of them losing their lives in these circumstances.
‘I do not think there were any signs of recklessness. It was mistake and high price was paid for it.’
Ms Munday said she would be writing to Doncaster Council to ask it to consider moving the transition from 60mph to 40mph on the A630 further away from Conisbrough.