Two teenage best friends were killed in a car race to get to McDonald’s, an inquest has heard.
Conor Tiley, 18, and Connor Williams, 17, died instantly when their car smashed into another vehicle on a tight bend on the road to the burger restaurant.
The pair were racing another car driven by one of their friends nicknamed “Sheep” on the trip to McDonald’s on January 3 this year.
The hearing was told Conor Tiley spoke to friend Louisa Jones just minutes before he died – he told her: “Hang on we’re racing Sheep to McDonald’s.”
Louisa said: “I told them not to do anything silly.
“I heard Connor Williams say “floor it, go faster” then the line went dead.
“He was influenced by the other boys. He always wanted to please everyone all the time.”
A third friend Cameron Nicholls, 18, survived but needed treatment for serious injures.
The crash happened when driver Conor lost control on a tight bend on New Road, in Tir-y-Berth, in his Ford Fiesta.
Talented rugby player Conor’s car then smashed into a Vauxhall Astra driven by Elaine Parsons coming the other way.
Mrs Parsons told the hearing there was nothing she could do to avoid the crash.
“Suddenly a vehicle appeared out of nowhere,” she said.
“Its front lights were on and I was startled because it was on my side of the road and it was heading straight toward me.
“The oncoming vehicle was completely over the wrong side because it appeared out of nowhere and I didn’t have time to react.”
The inquest, held on Thursday, October 20 in Newport, heard they were racing friend Adam Jones – known as Sheep – who arrived at the McDonald’s in Blackwood.
He realised his friends were not there and believed they had gone to McDonald’s in Caerphilly instead.
The coroner concluded Connor and Conor, both of Aberbargoed, died as a result of a road traffic collision.
Assistant Coroner Wendy James said: “This has led to a dramatic loss of two young men who had their whole lives in front of them.
“They were two young men who made their respective families proud.”
This is exactly the reason young men and women are charged so much for car insurance, their idiotic behaviour at the wheel of a one tonne killing machine. Two young lives have been lost and two families needlessly mourning their untimely deaths, all because of the stupidity of the young man who was driving recklessly and with no respect or thought for the safety of his passengers. Sadly young men believe they are invincible when they take the wheel of a car, they wrongly think they are supreme drivers that could show Lewis Hamilton a thing or two, the only thing they are is woefully inexperienced and deluded. Thank God that the innocent person who was unfortunate enough to be sharing the road with these idiots survived the collision, all young drivers should take more care, one thing we can all do without is more young lives lost on our roads and more families left tragically bereaved by the awful loss of a loved one.
A young person, perhaps just after their 17th birthday, on passing the car test can drive any car they can afford, Ferrari, Jaguar, or anything else. If they ride a motorcycle there are far more rigorous rules.
First a CBT test must be passed, off road, for basic competency in vehicle control. The main test must be passed within two years of this or it’s back to square one. If the motorcycle test is passed then there is a power restriction of 11kw. This rises to 35 kw at age 19, providing the necessary tests are passed.
The youngest age a person can lawfully ride a full power motorbike, provided they have passed CBT, theory test, practical test and two years experience of riding is 21 years of age.
My own view is that the young motorcycle rider is treated excessively harshly but the young four wheel driver is given a far too easy route to being in charge, of what Paul rightly calls “a one tonne killing machine.” A machine that also could be carrying four passengers or more. The results are often reported as young people die on our roads. This additionally impacts on young people who are capable drivers but have to pay insurance premiums that cost many times what their car’s value in order to cover the cost of the actions of the bad drivers.
To reduce the number of young deaths on our roads there needs to be restrictions placed upon them, 25% of young drivers crash within two years of passing their test and are far more likely to die in a crash than an older driver. There needs to be a restriction on the number of passengers they can carry, a car loaded with a group of friends will handle completely differently to when it only has the driver in it. The driving test needs to change and learners need to have clocked up a minimum numbers of hours behind the wheel before they can even take their test, newly qualified drivers are a high risk as they are inexperienced and have poor hazard awareness. Driving is a privilege we all now take for granted but being in control of a car carries a great deal of responsibility as one moment of stupidity behind the wheel can cost lives and destroy families.