Crash victims' families criticise DPP over delay

The families of five young people who were killed in a head-on collision in Co Donegal have criticised the Director of Public Prosecutions for the delay in dealing with the case.

Eleven relatives of the dead held a press conference yesterday in Buncrana in which they said they had asked "time and time again" why the DPP had not yet made a decision whether or not to bring a prosecution in the case though it was two years and three months since the accident. They said it was now a "matter of urgency" that such a decision be made.

Darren Quinn (21), his cousin Gavin Duffy (21), Charlene O'Connor (21), Rochelle Peoples (22), all from Buncrana, and David Steele (23), from Quigley's Point, died instantly when their Peugeot 306 was in collision with a Mazda Premacy people carrier in the early hours of Saturday morning, October 8th, 2005 at Quigley's Point on the Inishowen peninsula.

The only survivor of the crash, Brendan Henderson, a psychiatric nurse from Sevenoaks, Co Derry, was badly injured. He was the driver of the Mazda

A Garda investigation immediately followed and a file was sent to the DPP, but so far no action has been taken.

No inquest has been held yet into their deaths because of the investigations by the DPP.

Reading from a prepared statement, Annette Duffy, the mother of Gavin Duffy, said: "The families cannot understand why there has been such a delay in making any decision in relation to the crash which killed our children. So far we have not been given a satisfactory answer. Almost 27 months have gone by now since their young lives were wiped out.

"Yet when we asked what was happening, we were put off time and time again. We're frustrated and angry at the lack of progress. We need to have decisions made and we need to have them done urgently to help us ease the pain."

Ms Duffy said a decision by the DPP would only be the "first hurdle" in a number of steps they would have to take to bring some sense of closure to the events that claimed their children's lives.

Patrick Quinn, Darren's father, said they were not apportioning blame for the accident and the gardaí investigating the case have been able to tell them nothing because their investigations are confidential.

"We don't know who caused the accident, but we want to find out. There were five young ones involved. The finger always points at them, but we haven't got a clue," he said

A spokeswoman for the DPP said they did not comment on individual cases.