Heavy rain and water on the road contributed to the deaths of two teenage girls from Rhondda, an inquest has heard. Rhiannon Davies, 18, and Jade Emanuel, 17, died minutes after setting out on a shopping trip in March 2008.
The car they were in lost control on the A465 heads of the valleys road near Merthyr in heavy rain and was involved in a head-on collision. The inquest in Aberdare heard that large amounts of water were present on the road at the time of the accident.
Rhiannon, from Treherbert, and Jade, from Blaencwm, were travelling to Merthyr Tydfil when it is thought Rhiannon lost control of her blue MG Rover ZR. She pulled out into the middle lane to overtake before the back of the car 'snaked one way, then another', then hit a vehicle coming in the other direction.
Both teenagers, who were not wearing seatbelts, were thrown from the car and died at the scene. The coroner was told that water had been coming over an embankment 'like a waterfall' and running down the carriageway like a stream. One witness described water after the accident as 'running over the top of his shoe'.
Motorists who regularly use that stretch of the A465 said it was a common problem and they slowed down because they knew the water would be there in heavy rainfall. One driver said she had previously aquaplaned on that section. A doctor who attended the scene said it was an area known to emergency services as a danger zone and that he had attended a similar but non-fatal accident two months before the tragedy.
The inquest heard that work had since been done on the A465 and that water no longer caused the same problems.
