Two young men died yesterday and two others were injured, one critically, after the van in which they were travelling struck a ditch and crashed into a field in Co Clare.
The incident occurred shortly before 5am at Goldburn Bridge on the main Ennis to Kilrush road, near the scene of a previous fatal crash.
The scene remained cordoned off for almost eight hours as investigators tried to piece together the circumstances of the incident. A three-mile stretch of the main N68 was reopened shortly after lunchtime, however the road was closed again late yesterday evening for a further hour and a half to allow investigators from Dublin examine the scene.
The four men, who were aged between 17 and 22, had been travelling in a black Volkswagen Transporter commercial van.
The scene was described by one garda as an "horrific mess" with debris scattered over a wide area.
Several pieces of equipment used in the construction industry, which had been in the back of the van, were strewn across the road.
The wrecked van was removed from the scene shortly after 2pm and taken to Kilrush Garda Station where a full technical examination will be carried out.
The men, from the neighbouring villages of Mullagh, Kilmurry McMahon, Killimer and Knock, in Co Clare, are believed to have attended a party in Knock earlier in the night and had travelled back to one of the men's homes by taxi.
The men then took the van to Ennis and it was during the return journey that the crash occurred.
The two victims, named locally last night as Shane Donellan (17), from Killimer, and Eoin Glynn (21), from Miltown Malbay, were pronounced dead at the scene while the two other men were taken to Ennis General Hospital.
One was later transferred to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick for further treatment. His condition was described last night as critical.
The parents of one of the young men were returning from the UK last night where they were on a short break when they were informed of the incident.
Superintendent Noel Clark of Ennistymon asked witnesses to contact gardaí in Kilrush.
"This is a terrible tragedy for the area and I would ask that anyone who travelled the main Ennis to Kilrush road around the time of the crash, before or just after 5am, to make contact with us if they saw the black van on the road or in the area," he said.
Two units of the fire brigade from Kilrush and ambulances from Ennis and Kilrush attended the incident and, according to one source, one victim was only discovered lying a short distance from the wrecked vehicle almost an hour after the crash.