The New South Wales coroner has found the driver responsible for the crash that killed a Home and Away actor and her family had consumed a cocktail of drugs including a “lethal” dose of anti-depressants.

Jessica Falkholt died in hospital three weeks after the Boxing Day crash in 2017 which claimed the lives of her parents, Lars and Vivian, and her 20-year-old sister, Annabelle.

The crash occurred after Craig Whitall lost control of his four-wheel drive on the Princes Highway at Conjola before colliding with the Falkholt family’s car in the opposite lane.

The NSW State coroner Teresa O’Sullivan handed down the findings of an inquest which revealed Mr Whitall attended Shoalhaven Hospital on Boxing Day morning.

He was seeking methadone despite Ms O’Sullivan claiming he had been given sufficient doses to “cover the holiday period”.

Hospital records revealed Mr Whitall’s request was denied, he was instead given valium and asked to “sort out is prescription” and return the following day.

A toxicology report showed he had several drugs in his system at the time of the crash including methadone, valium, doxepin and trace amounts of amphetamine and methamphetamine.

The court heard Mr Whitall had a history of heroin use and was taking methadone as part the opioid treatment program he had been involved in for 20 years.

Ms O’Sullivan said the 3.5mg/L of doxepin discovered in his system was within the “lethal range” and combined with the other drugs was likely a factor in the crash.

“I am of the view that the cumulative effects of the medication (primarily the doxepin, but also the diazepam and methadone) present in Mr Whitall’s blood caused a degree of sedation that impaired Mr Whitall’s driving skills,” she said.

The inquest also heard from other road users who observed Mr Whitall driving “aggressively and erratically” before the crash, with one witness claiming he was “absolutely flying”.

Pharmacologist Judith Perl told the inquiry this behaviour was consistent with the impacts of the drugs he had taken.

Dr Perl also claimed Mr Whitall would be “displaying signs of an overdose in the lead up to the accident” given the level of doxepin found in his blood.

Demerit points on a provisional licence

Mr Whitall had acquired his learner licence the year before the crash at age of 49, but had seven pages worth of driving records dating back to 1983 that the coroner described as “difficult reading”.

She found Mr Whitall had committed four driving offences in the eight months prior to the crash despite only having a provisional licence.

“This culminated in eight demerit points being applied to Mr Whitall’s licence, exceeding the provisional licence threshold and subsequently his licence was suspended almost three months after his death,” the coroner said.

However, she conceded he might still have driven based on his extensive history of driving without a licence.

“It is entirely possible that Mr Whitall would have continued to drive to collect his methadone or to attempt to obtain additional medication, even if the demerit points had applied and his licence had been suspended at the time of the accident.”

Heroes praised

Jessica Falkholt appeared as Hope Morrison on 16 episodes of Home and Away, with her stint on the long-running TV soap ending in November 2016.

In the aftermath of the crash, the director of the 2018 film Harmony, in which Falkholt had the starring role, described her as an amazing actress who was “on her way to stardom”.

In handing down her findings, Ms O’Sullivan said “the graphic impact of the collision, together with the seemingly random nature of the accident reverberated throughout the community”.

“The tragedy of the event was compounded by the fact the accident occurred on Boxing Day, a day many of us look forward to spending with our family and friends,” she told the court.

The coroner highlighted evidence provided by Jessica Falkholt’s uncle, Paul Ponticello, during the inquest, praising the efforts of onlookers who pulled the trapped women from the wreckage.

The coroner gave her condolences to the relatives of the Falkholt family, many of whom live in Sweden where the “tyranny of distance compounded their loss”.

She also extended her sympathies to the Whitall family who had also lost a family member despite his “troubled life” and the “terrible consequences of Mr Whitall’s driving on that fateful day”.