Aughnacloy crash victims were returning from a family funeral – priest
By Jessica Lawrence
BBC News NI
The people who died in a crash near Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, have been named locally as Dan McKane, his sister Christine McKane and their aunt Julia McSorley.
They were killed when their minibus collided with a lorry on the A5 Tullyvar Road.
A parish priest said the family were returning from their aunt’s funeral in England when the crash happened.
Four others in the minibus were seriously injured.
Father Declan Boland, a priest in Strabane, County Tyrone, said the family and local community are in total disbelief at the tragedy.
“The community are struggling to comprehend what is happening. We have to face into the horror of the bodies coming home and then the funerals,” he told the BBC’s The North West Today programme.
Fr Boland said the local community are deeply shocked and saddened by Thursday’s crash
Fr Boland visited the home of Ms McKane on Thursday where people had come together to pay tribute.
“People were just gathering in groups, not saying an awful lot but just being there in silent solidarity, embracing one another,” he said.
“It really is a silent witness where words are really inadequate.”
The serious crash required the use of cutting equipment to rescue casualties, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) said.
Two people in post-operative care in Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital are badly injured but will pull through, Fr Boland added.
Hundreds of people gathered in Strabane on Friday evening for a vigil to remember the victims of the crash.
The vigil was held at the Holy Grotto in Strabane
“The last time we met there was sadly the Creeslough tragedy, and now we have our own tragedy,” Fr Boland said.
A special Mass will also be held in Aughnacloy on Friday night.
‘Such an awful tragedy’
Keiron Tourish, BBC News NI’s north west correspondent, in Strabane
There’s a palpable sense of shock and disbelief in Strabane this morning in the wake of this tragedy.
People attending morning Mass in the Church of the Immaculate Conception on Barrack Street said they were heartbroken at the deaths.
“I can’t believe that they were over in England for a funeral and returning home when this happened. It’s terrible, just terrible,” said one woman.
Candles lit in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Strabane
Another woman said she was going to Mass to pray for the family and light a candle for them: “It’s just such an awful tragedy.”
Friends of the McKane family said they are lovely people and are completely devastated by what has happened.
A5 conditions ‘horrendous’
Thursday’s fatal crash is the latest to happen on the A5 road, which links Dublin in the Republic of Ireland and the north west.
Plans to upgrade the road between Aughnacloy and New Buildings in County Londonderry were announced in 2007.
But they have been delayed amid funding issues and legal challenges.
The Department for Infrastructure said the estimated cost of the project was £1.6bn – up £400m since the last estimate.
Campaigners from Enough is Enough, a group calling for the upgrade to take place, previously said 44 people have died on the road since 2007.
Upgrades for the A5 road were announced in 2007
Alan Kilpatrick, who lives on the road where the crash happened, said it was dangerous.
He was one of the first people to arrive at the scene of the crash on Thursday morning.
“I don’t want to see what I saw, I don’t want to see it again. I certainly don’t want to see it because this is avoidable with a better road,” he told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme.
He added there is a high volume of traffic on the road, including commercial vehicles trying to navigate small roads.
“Here is a main road between the largest city on the island, the whole north west of the island, and it’s absolutely horrendous.”
