TWO YOUNG PEOPLE DIE IN HORROR CRASH
Donegal accident leaves two dead, three in hospital
Driver later went to Garda station
TWO people have died and one young person remains critical after they were flung from the back of a car carrying six in Donegal early yesterday morning.
Gardaí were unable to locate the driver – but he was later arrested when he turned up at a Garda station.
The two killed – a woman and man – were travelling home following a night out in Bundoran.
Two other men and a woman were seriously injured and were last night in hospital.
All six were travelling back to south Fermanagh when the car hit a kerb in the east end of Bundoran.
It then crashed into a brick wall and spun across the road into a lamppost at around 3.25am yesterday. All four rear passengers were thrown from the blue Peugeot 306 car and lay on the ground near the car. The six people in the Northern-registered car had been out socialising earlier in the evening and were understood to be travelling to the village of Belleek, Co. Fermanagh, where some of them lived.
All were in their 20s and it is not believed that any were wearing seatbelts at the time.
The two who died were named locally yesterday as Shiva Devine, who lived in Belleek and was originally from Donegal, and Conaill McAleer from Ederney in Co. Fermanagh.
The noise of the impact alerted locals who contacted the emergency services who were on the scene very quickly.
Ambulance personnel attempted CPR but Ms Devine and Mr McAleer were pronounced dead at the scene. Three others were taken to Sligo General Hospital for emergency treatment, including the two other back-seat passengers who suffered serious injuries.
One of the passengers, a woman in her 20s, was said last night to be in a critical condition. She was transferred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.
Gardaí could not initially find the driver of the car as he left the scene. It is understood the man went to a mobile home which is owned by relatives in the locality. They convinced him to return and a short time later he met gardaí in Ballyshannon. He was later arrested.
The Peugeot car appeared to have hit a yellow brick perimeter wall at a tyre company on Single Street, Bundoran, and partially demolished the wall. The engine and a rear axle had dislodged and were lying in the street. The vehicle spun across the road and came to rest a short distance away, outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.
Emergency vehicles were still at the scene yesterday afternoon.
Gardaí said in a statement that a man in his 20s had ‘presented himself to gardaí in Ballyshannon in relation to the single vehicle fatal road traffic collision that occurred at Eastend, Bundoran, Co. Donegal, in the early hours of Sunday 19th August, 2018.’
He was arrested and was detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act at Ballyshannon Garda Station. It was understood last night that he had been released without charge and a file would be prepared for the DPP.
Donegal councillor Michael Naughton, told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘The young people are understood to have been travelling home from a night out in Bundoran in the early hours of the morning when the crash occurred.
‘It’s a great loss for the communities involved and our thoughts and condolences are with the families. It’s a devastating knock for any parents to get, to learn of such a terrible crash and loss of life.’
Rev. Canon Munster who is the Parish Priest in Dundoran told the Mail that he and his parishioners prayed for those who lost their lives when news reached them before Sunday morning Mass.
‘It’s a very sad and tragic accident, we offered prayers for the deceased and the families at Sunday mass,’ he said.
Belleek parish priest Fr Tiernach Beggan also offered his condolences to the family of Shiva Devine, who lived in the local parish. ‘My prayers are being offered to the family of Shiva Devine, the young woman was a mother and this is a devastating loss of life,’ he said.
Donegal has consistently had some of the worst traffic fatality statistics in the country, as previously highlighted by the Irish Daily. The last major study by the Road Safety Authority, in 2013, showed that Donegal had the third-highest fatality rate in the country. That year, 13 people died on Donegal’s roads.
This year, six road fatalities had already been recorded before yesterday morning’s tragedy.