Worst tragedy on our roads since Easter 1995
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THE tragic car accident, which cut short the lives of four Kerry teenagers outside Killarney on Wednesday last, was the worst crash recorded in the county since 1995.
The most fatalities in an accident on the county's roads was on April 16, 1995, when six people were killed in a two-car collision on the Farranfore to Castleisland road.
The car crash claimed the lives of couples Robin, 36, and Mary Coffey, 39; and Michael, 33, and Patricia Coffey, 32, and their relatives Elizabeth O'Brien, 38, and John Harrington, 42, all of Ballyspillane, Killarney. In a cruel twist of fate, the Breen brothers, David, 17, and Kevin, 15, who were killed in last week's accident, resided in Hazelwood Drive, Ballyspillane.
At the funeral mass for the six victims of the collision, the now Bishop Bill Murphy said that not since the Great Famine had Killarney's St. Mary's Cathedral witnessed such tragic scenes.
Friends Daniel O'Mahony, 21, of Ballydonoghue, Lisselton, Cornelius O'Connor, 23, and Martin Walsh, 45, both of Glouria, Lisselton, died in a car accident in Duagh on May 19, 1978.
On August 20, 1989, brother and sister Hughie O'Connor, 21, and Kathy O'Connor, 19, of Muingatlaunlush, Lyreacrompane, and neighbour Michael O'Mahony, 35, Beenageeha, were killed returning home from a 21st birthday party in what was described as a "horror car accident" outside Tralee town. Sister Mary O'Connor survived the crash.
In the early hours of January 6, 2003, Christopher O'Connor, 25, Listowel; James Culhane, 30, Moyvane, and Patrick Galvin, 34, Moyvane, lost their lives when the car they were travelling in hit a wall at Cahirdown, Listowel.
- GEMMA KAVANAGH
