Brothers survived crash that killed their cousin

TWO brothers who survived the worst school bus crash in Irish history yesterday spoke of their despair at the death of their cousin.

Mark McCabe, 16, and his brother Sean, 14, were among 51 students travelling home from school in Navan, Co Meath, when their coach overturned at Casey’s Cross, Kentstown, yesterday afternoon.

Mark sustained ankle and shoulder injuries and Sean received severe bruising, but their 18-year-old cousin, Deirdre Scanlon, was one of five teenage girls to be killed in the crash.

“It’s just disbelief. It’s really hard to get your head around it,” said Mark.

He described Deirdre, a student at St Michael’s Loreto Convent in Navan, as a beautiful, intelligent girl.

“She wanted to be an accountant. She had been talking to her sister Catriona’s boyfriend, who was a trainee accountant,” he said.

The boys, who attend St Patrick’s Classical School in Navan, described the terrifying scenes as the accident, which injured 46 people, unfolded.

Mark said he had been sitting at the rear of the bus.

“The driver swerved to miss something, he missed a car that was already there. Then the bus just toppled over,” he said.

Mark grabbed hold of a railing but was thrown out of his seat.

“I just remember everyone flying through the air. One of my friends went through the back window,” he said.

Further up, in the middle of the bus, Sean McCabe thought the bus was swerving to take the sharp bend on that section of the Navan to Kentstown road.

“I didn’t notice we were toppling. I don’t know how I stayed in my seat,” he said.

Elizabeth Sheridan’s two children were on the bus when it crashed.

Both her 14-year-old daughter Ellen and 15-year-old son Phillip were taken to hospital. Ellen was kept under observation over night.

Mrs Sheridan said: “They are well, reasonably good ... They are trying to cope with the fact that people they were talking to moments before are now dead.”

It happened so quickly they had little time to grasp what was happening.

As the bus went in to a skid, the children grabbed the front of the seats.

As the bus spun, some of the children were thrown from the vehicle. The bus ended up on its side at the verge of the road.

All the children who could do so scrambled from the bus, some bleeding, some in a state of shock, others screaming.

“My daughter had just sent a text so she had the phone in her hand. She opened the phone and called my number. She was hysterical,” said Mrs Sheridan.

Many parents were on the scene within minutes, even before emergency services. Some of the children were taken to hospital in cars.

“It’s hard to believe it’s happened ... and that we are going to have to bury five girls.”

THE following funeral arrangements have been issued by the parishes of Beauparc-Kentstown and Donore-Rosnaree:

* Deirdre Scanlon:

Thursday May 26: 10.30am. Removal from home to Church of the Assumption, Beauparc. 11.00am Requiem Mass. Burial will follow in adjoining Cemetery.

* Sinéad Ledwidge:

May 26: 1.30pm. Removal from home to Church of the Assumption, Beauparc. 2.00pm Requiem Mass. Burial will follow in adjoining Cemetery

* Aimee McCabe

Friday May 27: 10.30am. Removal from home to Church of the Assumption, Beauparc. 11.00am Requiem Mass. Burial will follow in adjoining Cemetery

* Clare McCluskey

May 25: 6.30pm. Removal from home to Church of the Nativity, Rosnaree. May 26: 11.00am Requiem Mass in Church of the Nativity. Burial will follow in Knockcommon Cemetery.

* Lisa Callan

May 26: 1.30pm. Removal from home to Church of the Nativity, Rosnaree. 2.00pm Requiem Mass. Burial will follow in Ballapousta Cemetery (Ardee).

Churches in both parishes will remain open for quiet remembrance and prayer.

A book of condolences has been opened on the diocesan website: www.dioceseofmeath.ie.

A Day of Prayer will take place tomorrow and will be focused in the Church of St Cianan, Duleek, Co Meath, from 10.00am-9.00pm.