DRUGS were found in the body of the driver of a car which plummeted into a disused quarry, killing him and his three passengers, and inquest was told yesterday.

The coroner, David Bowen, told the hearing in Newport, he could not be sure whether this had impaired the driving of Jack Magee.

He recorded verdicts of misadventure on 47-year-old Mr Magee, of Aberbeeg, and his passengers, 29-year-old Shane Powell of Trevethin, Alex Williams, 21, and 19-year-old Karl Devlin, both of Malpas, Newport.

The four men were driving along the Swffryd Road last October when Mr Magee's automatic BMW left the road and rolled down a steep slope before toppling 25 metres into the quarry.

The car had disabled adaptations with which Mr Magee, a paraplegic, was familiar.

Mr Bowen told distraught relatives that all four men died instantly.

He said opiates and cannabis, which were found in Mr Magee's body, were considered to be liable to impair an individual's ability to drive.

But only the occupants of the car could tell if that was the case.

Erratic driving seen by witnesses before the accident may support evidence of impairment but it could have been nothing more than showing off the performance of the car, said Mr Bowen.

He said that if it had been proved the drugs had affected his driving, the verdict on the three passengers would have been that they were unlawfully killed.

Opiates were also found in the bodies of Mr Devlin and Mr Williams while methadone and diazepam were found in Mr Powell.

The inquest was told the four men were in Newport earlier that day when they had driven off in the BMW to get a telephone number for the purpose of buying drugs.