Two teenage friends killed in a road traffic crash on the Inishowen Peninsula in Co Donegal were returning home after one of them worked a night shift in a local restaurant.
The victims have been named locally as Alana Harkin and Thomas Gallagher, both 18 and from Gleneely on the Inishowen Peninsula.
The friends died following the crash on the R238 at Terrawee, Gleneely, at about 12.45am this morning.
A third person, a young man in his late teens, was rushed to Letterkenny University Hospital for treatment but his injuries are not understood to be life-threatening.
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The group had earlier left the restaurant where Alana Harkin worked and left another friend off in the Glengad area of Inishowen before the three remaining in the car travelled onwards towards Gleneely where both Thomas and Alana were from.
Thomas was a Leaving Certificate pupil at Moville Community College and his mother Helen is a teacher at the same school.
His parents, Helen and Dominic and the rest of the Gallagher family, were today coming to terms with the tragedy.
Alana had been a pupil at Carndonagh Community School but had completed her Leaving Certificate last summer.
Her parents Karen and Patrick and the rest of the Harkin family were also trying to cope with their heartbreaking sudden loss.
Local county councillor from Culdaff, Johnny McGuinness, said the entire community is just devastated by the loss of such young lives.
He said “These were good young people returning home from working in a local restaurant but then the unthinkable happened.
“They were lovely young people with their entire lives in front of them.”
The latest deaths brings to 163 the number of people who have lost their lives on Irish roads since the start of the year.
This is 37 and 46 higher than the corresponding periods in 2022 and 2019 – the last year before pandemic lockdowns – respectively.
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said more needs to be done to counter “really worrying” and “hugely upsetting” trends in road deaths this year.
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She told reporters on Monday that there needed to be “continuous visibility” and a Garda presence on the ground “irrespective” of the day of the week.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the improving road safety to prevent any further rises in the number of people being killed in collisions on Irish roads requires a multi-pronged approach with emphasis on education as well as enforcement.
Speaking at the opening of the final section of the €280 million Macroom to Baile Bhuirne Bypass in Co Cork, Mr Varadkar said that the government was looking at increasing the number of gardaí allocated to road policing duties.
“It’s a matter of enormous concern to me, the fact that more people have died on our roads this year so far than all the last year and I’m aware that we lost more lives in the last 24 hours in Donegal so that’s very much I think, on everyone’s mind,” he said.
The R238 remained closed on Monday morning, and diversions were in place.
Gardaí in Buncrana are appealing to any witnesses to contact them.
Any road users who were travelling on the R238 early this morning between midnight and 1am and who have camera footage (including dashcam) are asked to make it available to gardaí.
The Inishowen Peninsula has seen multiple deaths in road crashes. In July 2010 eight people died in a two-car collision, and five each were killed in crashes in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Another five died when a car slipped into the water at Buncrana pier in 2016.
Two other people were killed in a car crash on the peninsula in 2017.
Of this year’s fatalities to date, drivers account for 57 deaths, with 39 pedestrians also killed and 33 passengers in vehicles dying. There have also been 24 motorcyclists killed this year, five cyclists and four e-scooter-related deaths.
