HSE to cover costs of sending home bodies of Polish crash victims

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) South pledged financial support yesterday to four grieving Polish families whose sons were killed in an horrific crash last weekend.

The families of the four men killed at Ballinhassig, Co Cork on Friday night were struggling to pay for the transport of their bodies back to the small town of Pisz in Poland.

Fundraising had by yesterday afternoon raised up to half the amount needed.

But the HSE confirmed last night that following talks with the Polish embassy, it would meet any shortfall.

The bodies were released from Cork University Hospital to Polish undertakers Apokalipsa yesterday.

The remains will be repatriated by road and ferry for burial in a single ceremony on Monday.

Roy Coughlan, who employed one of the crash victims, Rafal Gorski, and who is in Poland helping with arrangements, said the news would ease the pressure on the families.

The father of another of the crash victims, Andrzej Wojciechowski, was buried before Christmas, he said.

Meanwhile, a member of the Oireachtas Transport Committee called last night for the immediate impounding of all uninsured foreign vehicles.

Fianna Fáil’s Noel O’Flynn said the vehicles should be examined on entry at Irish ports and impounded if found to be uninsured or not road worthy. He also called for a mechanism to ensure penalty points issued to non-national drivers can be recorded on their licences.

“Foreign nationals account for one-in-four road deaths here yet they account for only 9% of our workforce,” he said. “This needs to be addressed as much for the safety of the foreign nationals as for the general motoring population.”

And in a separate development, the Irish Brokers’ Association (IBA), which represents 500 insurance agents, expressed concern about non-nationals being allowed to drive on Irish roads using foreign insurance policies.

The group said people in accidents involving non-national drivers may not receive adequate compensation.

Irish insurance policies must provide for a minimum cover of some €30 million for a third party claim, said Stuart Reid, the IBA’s director of general services.

But in Poland, the figure is just €1.5m. In Latvia, it is €355,750 per claim and in Lithuania it is just €145,000.

“In 2004, there were over 100 Irish court cases involving claims of over €100,000 which would cause major problems if they involved policies from some Eastern European countries,” he said.