A witness told an inquest yesterday that he believed that a woman who died in a car accident was talking to him on her mobile phone when she was involved in the crash.
The publican said he was on the phone to the woman, a drink sales representative, when he heard her say his name and then scream before the phone went dead.
Tom Beirne of George's Pub, The Square, Roscommon, told the coroner for south Mayo, John O'Dwyer, that he tried unsuccessfully afterwards to re-establish contact with Paula English, a representative of Diageo, and heard the following day she had died in a traffic accident.
"I am sure the accident occurred while I was on the phone to her the previous day around 4pm," Mr Beirne said.
Ms English (31), who lived at Cashel, Achill, Co Mayo, was killed in a head-on collision with another vehicle near Hollymount, Co Mayo, on December 15th last year.
A jury at the inquest in Castlebar yesterday returned a verdict of accidental death caused by a fractured dislocation of the spinal cord.
The inquest heard that Ms English had been travelling behind a vehicle when her vehicle crossed on to its incorrect side and collided with an approaching vehicle.
The driver of the second vehicle, PJ Fitzgerald, The Glebe, Stranorlar, Co Donegal and his passenger, Seán Duffy, Douglas Bridge, Strabane, Co Tyrone, were returning from a funeral in Connemara when the impact occurred and there was nothing he could do to avoid the collision.
"It happened so fast I don't remember braking," Mr Fitzgerald said. "Just before the collision I remember saying to Seán 'we're dead'. The cars then crashed and there was a terrible bang. There was glass flying everywhere."
Mr O'Dwyer extended sympathy to the family and friends of the deceased. It was a tragic death for a young woman with so much to live for, he said.