The three young friends killed when the car they were travelling hit a tree in Co Carlow on Wednesday night have been named locally.
Daryl Culbert (21) from Kiltegan, Co Wicklow, Katie Graham (19) from Arles, Co Carlow and Michael Kelly (25) from Nurney, Co Carlow were killed when the red Lexus car they were travelling in left the N80 in the townland of Leagh, less than 10km from Carlow town, and crashed into a tree at around 11.30pm on Wednesday evening.
A fourth occupant of the car, a man in his 20s from Ballinabrannagh, Co Carlow, was being treated for serious but non-life-threatening injuries in Beaumont Hospital on Thursday evening following the crash. He had initially been treated at St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny.
At a press conference on Thursday evening Superintendent Anthony Farrell, of Carlow Garda station, told reporters that in his 25 years of service with An Garda Síochána, Wednesday night’s crash was “one of the most severe” he’d attended.
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“Young people in the prime of their lives just starting out. Certainly, [the] families are obviously devastated by the impact of this and news that they received,” he said.
Supt Farrell said gardaí had no indication what had caused the crash, and that that road conditions on the N80 on Wednesday night were dry, “albeit, a bit slippy”.
Gardaí suspect that the four young people had travelled from a Circle K garage at junction 5 of the M9 – a popular hangout for young car enthusiasts – to the village of Ballon on Wednesday evening. The collision occurred as they were moving back in the direction of the garage.
A section of the N80 was closed for much of Thursday to allow a Garda forensics unit to carry out investigations. Local undertakers removed the bodies of the deceased from the scene in separate hearses around lunchtime, and formal identification of the bodies was ongoing at University Hospital Waterford on Thursday evening.
According to locals, the stretch of road where the collision occurred is generally regarded as dangerous, with several serious crashes occurring in recent times. Last September, a man died following a two-vehicle collision on the N80 at Gráig Na Spideog, a short distance from where the three young people lost their lives on Wednesday night.
Fr Tom Little from the nearby village of Ballon, Co Carlow, said that he spent most of the night at the scene.
“When I got there the emergency services were in attendance and tragically three young people lost their lives in a car. I gave them the sacrament of the last rites of the church and blessed them,” the parish priest told RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland.
“As a group we stood around and prayed together for them and for their families. It’s a terrible loss.”
Speaking close to the scene of the crash on Thursday afternoon, Cllr John McDonald, who is from the area, said a close friend had a family member involved in the collision.
“I got a phone call at 6.30am, a friend of mine, a family member was involved in it,” he said. “I was talking to one of the family members there, the family are really devastated. People are devastated at the news, it’s a body blow to the area.”
Fianna Fáil TD for Carlow-Kilkenny Jennifer Murnane O’Connor, also speaking close to the scene of the crash, said that there have been several serious crashes on the stretch of road in recent times. “The whole of Carlow are in shock,” she said.
Ms O’Connor said there was a need for “proper” infrastructure.
“We have to make sure we have proper safety on our roads, signage, it’s a huge issue with the amount of death that we would have seen this year,” she said.
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