Crash ‘was like a horror movie’
The man was travelling with his wife and young child behind the vehicles which were caught up in the fatal crash.
He said: “It was like something out of a horror movie and there was a terrible silence on the road.
“As soon as I got out of the car I saw a man lying on the ground about 20 yards away from me. I saw someone rubbing him on the forehead and then they put a blanket over him. It was bizarre and everyone seemed to be walking in slow motion. This was before any of the emergency services had arrived on the scene.
“When I looked across the road I saw a small blond-haired girl who was being held by the hand. She was looking for her mother. Another woman was holding her hand.
“There were pieces of cars and motorcycles everywhere and there was a smell of burning rubber.”
Another eyewitness said he saw a motorbike flying up in the air.
“You would think it was a stunt except it was deadly serious and this bike went hurtling through the air. It seemed to be just after hitting a car and then two more cars seemed to collide and there were a few terrible bangs, like tyres bursting.”
Gardaí in Donegal are appealing for eyewitnesses to the crash which happened at a junction near Ballymagroarty on the N17 between Donegal Town and Sligo on Sunday evening at 6.20pm. It resulted in the deaths of a middle-aged couple from Dungiven, Co Derry, and a 74-year-old woman from Gortahork in Co Donegal. The cause of the crash is not yet known. Driving conditions at the time of the accident were described as good. Two motorcyclists, two women and a baby were taken to Sligo General Hospital. The fatally injured were taken to Letterkenny General Hospital where post mortems were due to be carried out on the bodies yesterday afternoon.
A garda spokesperson said wreckage from the accident was strewn along the road for several hundred metres and accident investigators were attempting to establish in which direction the vehicles had been travelling. Two of the dead are understood to have been in the cars.
Gardaí have asked anyone who saw the collision to contact them at Ballyshannon on 071-9851102.
Meanwhile, a 21-year-old passenger who died when the car he was in went out of control near Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, at the weekend has been named as Anthony Smith from Castlerahan in Cavan.
