Devastated OAP (83) bids final farewell to husband and daughter killed in crash
A CO Down pensioner has bid emotional farewells to her husband and daughter at their funerals following their tragic deaths in a road crash on the A1 dual carriageway.
Raymond Halliday (87) and 47-year-old Anna Dodds were laid to rest in graveyards at St Luke’s Parish Church, Mullaglass and Ryans Presbyterian Church in Newry respectively yesterday.
They had been travelling in a Skoda Fabia when it was involved in a collision with a lorry and a Ford Focus at the Moneymore Road junction outside Newry at around 2.45pm on Friday.
Mr Halliday, from Granite View in Newry, had been taking his stepdaughter to Banbridge, where she was due to catch a bus with friends to attend a country music concert in Belfast.
The collision occurred at one of the A1’s gap junctions where vehicles can turn right across the central reservation.
Mr Halliday died at the scene while Ms Dodds, who was single and lived in Bessbrook in Co Armagh, passed away a short time later in hospital. Two other people were injured.
Speaking at the weekend, Evelyn Halliday (83) described her late husband of 25 years as a “true gentleman” and said her daughter was “completely devoted” to her nieces and nephews.
The pair are the latest people to lose their lives on the A1 in recent years.
The crash has prompted renewed calls for action to make safety improvements on the main Belfast to Dublin route.