The place where three men were killed in a head-on collision between a car and a minibus in Co Donegal early yesterday morning is a well-known accident blackspot on the main Buncrana to Derry road. Ten other people were injured in the accident, one seriously.
Gardai last night named dead as brothers Mr Martin Corcoran (27) and Mr Michael Corcoran (19), from Fergleen Park, Derry, and Mr John Stokes (25), of Galliagh Park, Derry. They were members of the Travelling community. Their Vauxhall Astra car with five passengers was heading towards Derry when it collided with a minibus travelling from Moville, Co Donegal, at 12.25 a.m. yesterday at a bend on the road known locally as the Rock Head just outside Burnfoot, about three miles from the Derry border.
Two of the men were pronounced dead at the scene and their bodies were taken to Letterkenny General Hospital for post-mortems. The 11 injured were taken to Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry, where another man died.
The injured include the driver and seven passengers on the minibus, which was taking young people from the Moville/Green castle area to a disco in Buncrana. A mother in her mid-20s travelling on the minibus was seriously injured, but was taken off the critical list yesterday evening. Four of the injured were discharged from hospital yesterday.
Garda Insp Greg Sullivan said the crash happened at a poorly lit stretch of road and that driving conditions were not good as it was raining at the time. He said there had been a number of accidents in recent years at the same location, but that Donegal County Council had done a lot of work to improve the road last year.
The Moville-based owners of the minibus said all of the passengers were regular customers, all in their 20s, who were being taken to a night-club in Buncrana.
The parish priest of Moville, Father George McLaughlin, said the local community was very shocked at the loss of life. "There is a great sadness for everybody involved that three lives were lost, and it is a big shock to people around here."
Members of the emergency services described the scene of the crash as "an horrific carnage". The impact of the collision was so severe that the Vauxhall car's engine was found 30 yards from the scene of the crash.
Mr Donal Skelly, from Moville, whose family runs the minibus service, said his family was in deep shock. "The injured people are now our main concern, particularly the young girl who is seriously ill in hospital."
Firemen from Buncrana, Letterkenny and Derry attended the scene.
Mr Jim Crawford, divisional commander of the Northern Ireland Fire Service in Derry, was one of the first people on the scene. "It was a scene of carnage and from the damage to both vehicles, it was obviously a high-speed impact collision.
"All of the emergency services from both sides of the Border worked together. We worked with our Donegal colleagues to free the dead and injured from the car. They were heavily trapped and we had to cut them free.
"I don't want to prejudge how this happened but in general I would say to young drivers that before they go out at night in a car, they should tell their family members that they will drive carefully so that a priest or policeman won't come knocking on their door late at night to tell their family they're dead or injured."