All five teens in car were wearing their seatbelts
Emergency services at the crash scene at Carrigeen, Killarney, where four young people were killed last Wednesday. Credit: Photo by Michelle Cooper Galvin
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ALL five occupants of the 2000 KY registered Hyundai Accent had been wearing their seatbelts when the vehicle hit an oak tree as it travelled from Barraduff towards Killarney.
Fire crews were called to the scene at 7.15am, arriving from Killarney just 11 minutes later. Two teams assisted with extensive rescue efforts which almost exclusively involved the cutting of the vehicles doors, roof and centre post of the mangled wreckage.
Fossa teenager Brian Coffey (19) had been a front seat passenger and was the first to be removed from the wreckage less than 20 minutes after rescue efforts had been initiated. Rushed by ambulance to Kerry General he died less than two hours later.
Sole survivor Darragh Jones had been sitting in the back seat of the vehicle on the passenger side. With his legs trapped he was fully conscious when the emergency services arrived and was able to communicate with rescue personnel. The Milltown Presentation student is currently described as 'comfortable' in Kerry General.
Driver David Breen (17) was pronounced dead long before his removal from the vehicle. His brother Kevin (15) had been sitting in the middle of the back seat. Killed on impact, he met the same fate as his older sibling.
David's girlfriend, Áine Riordan, had been sitting directly behind her partner. Alive but unconscious, extensive CPR efforts to resuscitate the popular Castleisland teenager lasted almost 30 minutes. In the end paramedics could not save her.
While the vehicle's last movements are mere speculation, traumatised fire crews say the brunt of the impact had been on the driver's door as it first hit a ditch before a tree took the brunt of the impact. Assistant Chief Fire Officer Michael Flynn said that emergency services never get used to such tragedies.
"It's very hard for the services to go out and do a job like this early in the morning or late at night when it could be family members or relations of the service or people that they know in the town . . . it's a job that needs to be done at the time."
- KEVIN HUGHES
