Gardaí investigating cause of fatal collision
GARDAI are investigating the cause of the horror crash on the N25 at Barntown in which a brother and sister from Clongeen were tragically killed.
Anne and Sylvester Dempsey, who were in their 40s, died after their Renault Clio was involved in a head-on collision with a Land Rover Discovery shortly before 1.30 p.m. last Wednesday.
The main thrust of the investigation is into how the 4X4, which was travelling towards Wexford, came to be on the wrong side of the road when it struck the Renault, which was travelling out of Wexford and had just passed through the road works taking place in the Barntown Traffic Calming area, when the accident happened.
‘Our forensic collision investigator was at the scene and the vehicles are being examined by the PSV inspector,’ said Inspector Denis Whelan, adding that gardai were in the course of taking statements from witnesses, but had not yet interviewed the driver of the 4X4, believed to be a man in his 40s.
Inspector Whelan said a garda family liaison officer was helping the family cope with the tragedy.
Such was the force of the impact that the Renault was pushed backwards along the road before both vehicles came to a rest at the side of the carriageway where a 100 km/h speed limit is in force.
Emergency services were quickly on the scene, but it was an hour before Ann Dempsey was cut free from the wreckage by the fire service.
Despite the best efforts of the emergency services, both she and her brother were pronounced dead at the scene. The brother and sister were returning home from a shopping trip to Pettitt’s St Aidan’s.
The two Dublin men, both employed in the construction industry, who were in the Discovery, suffered only relatively minor injuries given the severity of the crash, one reportedly with broken fingers.
Gardai have appealed for witnesses to the accident or anyone who may have dash cam footage of the collision to contact them.
The accident is the most serious on the stretch of the N25 near Larkin’s Cross since 2006, when a mother and her two young children were killed when their car was in collision with an articulated lorry.