Children killed as ash tree crushed crash car

Two teenagers who were killed in a car crash in Co Tipperary on Monday died almost instantly when a tree crushed the roof of their car after it skidded into a ditch.

Natalie Horan (13) and Michael Brennan (14), both first-year schoolchildren, died after the car in which they were travelling crashed at about 6.15pm on the Ballingarry Road, two miles from Mullinahone.

Two other children in the car, a girl and a boy, were taken to Our Lady's Hospital in Cashel with minor injuries.

The children, all of whom are from the Mullinahone area, were being driven home from Scoil Ruain in Killenaule after a study session.

It is understood the driver, a close friend of one of the families, lost control and the car went into a deep ditch on the left-hand side of the road. It then turned on its side, and an old ash tree crushed the rear part of the roof. Natalie Horan and Michael Brennan were both travelling in the back seat.

Gardaí said yesterday that driving conditions were good, the road surface was dry and there is no indication that speed was a factor. No other vehicle was involved.

School friends yesterday attended a Mass for the victims in Mullinahone, where local parish priest Fr John McGrath said the small community was "absolutely numbed" by the tragedy. "They were two lovely children, and in a small, rural area where everybody knows everybody, it has a devastating effect," he said.

"I buried a neighbour of theirs yesterday; she was 92 years old. You wouldn't believe that we'd be burying two children from the same community a few days later."

Fr McGrath was called to the scene within half an hour of the crash by a local doctor. He comforted the survivors at the scene before accompanying the victims' families to the mortuary.

He said he had particular sympathy for the driver of the car, who escaped serious injury.

"I still believe that there are accidents. The man driving is the most careful ever to get behind a wheel. On that road, there's no embankment, only a drop. There's no question of the driver being reckless or at fault. It was a freak accident. I feel awfully sorry for him. It's really tough on him; he is devastated."