Car plunge deaths 'misadventure' (From Free Press Series)

Car plunge deaths 'misadventure'

A VERDICT of misadventure has been recorded in the case of four men who died after their car plunged 100 feet into a quarry near Swffryd.

Pontypool man Shane Powell, 29, was a passenger in the car.

An inquest at Newport coroner's court heard the car fell into the quarry after the driver lost control as he approached a bend.

Paraplegic Jack Magee was driving the powerful BMW car which plummeted down an embankment and into the disused quarry last October.

The 47-year-old and his passengers, 21-year-old Alex Williams, from Newport, Karl Devlin, 19, also from Newport, and Shane Powell, died instantly in the crash, which left the car on its roof in the quarry.

The 2.5 litre rear-wheel drive car went out of control on a B-road between the villages of Soffryd and Llanhilleth in the Valleys north of Newport.

Mr Magee, from Aberbeeg, who had been left a paraplegic after a road accident in 1981, had consumed opiates and cannabis prior to his death, the inquest was told.

Coroner David Bowen recorded verdicts of misadventure.