Coroner settles question of who was driving in fatal bush rollover

A Queensland coroner has ruled on who was driving when a vehicle overturned on an Outback Queensland road, killing a 19-year-old woman.

A Facebook image of Madeleine Moroney

A coroner has ruled that a teenage girl killed in a car crash on the way home from a pub in western Queensland was the driver of the vehicle when it rolled while trying to avoid livestock.

Coroner David O’Connell oversaw an inquiry into the death of 19-year-old Madeleine Kate Moroney after conflicting reports were given about whether she or her boyfriend Dalton Edgley had been behind the wheel.

The couple had been at a hotel at Windorah in the Barcoo Shire on August 12, 2017 when they had a fight, prompting Ms Moroney to leave and walk to the rodeo grounds.

Madeleine Moroney (Facebook image)

In his findings, Mr O’Connell said the pair were both under the influence of alcohol and illicit drugs, namely methylenedioxyamphetamine or MDA.

Mr Edgley drove his Toyota Landcruiser to the rodeo grounds where he found Ms Moroney and the pair left together, intending to drive the 5 kilometres to stay at a farmhouse on a nearby station.

But they never made it with the utility crashing along a dirt road, rolling and throwing Ms Moroney from the vehicle.

“The likely cause of the accident was that the driver appeared to have observed a calf on the road, and so swerved, overcorrected the steering, and the vehicle rolled over when it left the well-trafficked part of the road, and encountered a loose surface, while attempting to avoid the livestock on the road,” the coroner wrote in his findings.

“The driver at the time was affected by alcohol and illicit drugs, which would have adversely affected their decision-making capabilities.”

The inquest was held primarily to determine who had been driving at the time of the crash.

Lawyers for Ms Moroney’s family outlined a number of versions of events allegedly provided by Mr Edgley including allegations he used the words “I’ve rolled the car” when informing someone of the crash.

It was alleged he also told a police officer he was asleep during the drive, another conversation in which he allegedly said they switched drivers, and another text message exchange in which he indicated he had researched manslaughter and DUI charges.

Mr O’Connell said while the messages could be interpreted in a number of ways, “to me it is consistent with a young man inexperienced in such legal matters who is dealing with rumours from a small town that he could be charged over the incident”.

The coroner also said he could not rely upon evidence from a man who claimed Mr Edgley told him he had been driving when the car rolled.

He found that that witness could not be relied upon to give a truthful collection and said there appeared to be a distrust between the two men.