ON the second day of the trial, a key prosecution witness told the court that a car passed him on the Dundalk-Carlingford Road at such speed that it 'shook' his own car.

Peter Crawley told the court 'As I drove through Lordship, a car passed me at high speed, it shook my car as it passed. I stopped the car, I couldn't move, my legs were like jelly'.

He pulled off again and noticed the car break lights ahead. As he approached, he saw nothing but dust ahead of him. He saw lights of a car facing him, and legs of people crossing in front of it.

Initially, he and his wife who was a passenger in his car thought it could have been a hijacking, but quickly realised it was an accident. Mrs Crawley called 999.

However, under cross examination he admitted he was travelling at 40kph when the car passed.

Defence Barrister Derek Kenneally told the court that his wife Maureen had told gardaí that the car was going twice as fast a her husband's, which would mean the car was still travelling at under speed limit on the road, which is 100kph.

Mrs Crawley, told of their arrival at the scene which was clouded by dust. But as the dust cleared, the full horror of the tragic accident became clear, as she witnessed two cars collided.

Megan Perkins, who was in the back of the Audi that crashed, recalled getting into the car earlier in the evening, Daniel O'Riordan was driving. She asked him 'where did you rob it' and he swore that he had not stolen it. He showed her the keys and said he had bought it.

She remembered Dave Keenan being in the car that night and said that they had gone out to McGeough's at the border.

She had suffered 'terrible' injuries a result of the accident.

Defence counsel asked her how long did Daniel say he had the car, and she thought it was 'about a week beforehand.'