THE INDEPENDENT Police Complaints Commission in the UK has decided to investigate Friday’s crash in Devon in which a child from Cork was killed and his unborn sibling was also lost.
The crash, which left their parents in critical condition in hospital, was referred to the commission by police as it had been witnessed by an officer.
Devon police are trying to establish whether the Polish driver of the other car involved, which collided with the Irish car, had crashed into them deliberately.
Police have declined to comment on reports they had been alerted over the Polish man’s psychological well-being before the collision and that police had spotted him moments before it.
The commission will release details of its investigation after speaking to the families.
Relatives at the bedsides of Con (39) and Elber (36) Twomey yesterday told of their “raw and heartfelt” shock after the crash, which claimed the lives of the Twomeys’ son and unborn daughter.
The couple lost their son Oisín in the collision. Ms Twomey had been expecting a baby girl, who had been named Elber Marie.
In a statement released through Devon and Cornwall police, family members said Oisín had been the light of his parents’ lives. Baby Elber was “born an angel”, the statement said.
The couple remain seriously ill at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, where family members were praying for their recovery. “Con and Elber Twomey, devoted husband and wife, father and mother to Oisín, who was the light of their lives, are in the thoughts and prayers of everyone who knows them at this time. The shock of the events which took place last Friday afternoon is still so raw and heartfelt,” the statement added.
The Twomeys are “embedded in their community” and are involved in all aspects of it, including GAA and local events, it said. They are always together, supporting friends, neighbours and relatives, it went on.
The family were on holiday in southwest England when the collision happened at Torquay in Devon. More than 1,000 people attended a special Mass for the Twomeys in Ms Twomey’s native village of Rockchapel, north Cork, on Monday night.