A POSTMORTEM will be carried out today on a teenage boy who died when struck by a car in the Donegal International Rally outside Letterkenny, Co Donegal on Saturday. The remainder of the rally was called off.
Richard O’Donnell (18), Jefferson Court, Strabane, Co Tyrone, was among a group of 150 spectators at the Donegal rally when he dashed across a narrow country road.
Eye-witnesses said he ran out as soon as one car passed and was apparently unaware another was approaching at speed. It struck him, killing him instantly.
A young man who didn’t want to be named said: “It was dreadful. There was quite a jolly atmosphere with a number of young lads swigging from cans of beer. Suddenly we saw one of them dash out. He was thrown up in the air by one of the competing cars. The driver had no chance of avoiding him.” The witness added: “It was a horrific sight. I never heard anything like the screams of women and girls in the crowd.”
Gardaí and rally organisers said no blame whatever was being attached to the driver who, along with the co-driver, was treated at the scene by an ambulance crew.
The remainder of the three-day rally organised by the Donegal Motor Club was cancelled.
It was the second time in six years the rally has been abandoned in such circumstances. It was called off in 2002 following the deaths of two marshals and injuries to a photographer in a crash on the opening day.
Mr O’Donnell’s death was one of three involving young people in separate road crashes in the northwest on Saturday.
A 17-year-old girl died after a single-vehicle crash near Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim and a 20-year-old girl died when struck by a car after she alighted from a bus near her home not far from Sligo town.
Ann Kerrigan (17), of Manorhamilton, died in Sligo General Hospital on Saturday afternoon after sustaining serious injuries when a car in which she was a front-seat passenger overturned at Brackery Beg in the early hours of Saturday.
Two men in their early 20s, the driver and another passenger, were treated in hospital for minor injuries.
The girl who died in Sligo was student Aoife McEvoy (20). She was struck by a car after alighting from a bus in Rathcormac.
Meanwhile, gardaí at Ballybunion, Co Kerry were yesterday investigating a traffic collision which took place at 11.55am at East End, Ballybunion, in which a six-year-old girl was killed when she was struck by a car.