Teenage driver arrested as four friends die in crash

FIVE people were killed in two separate road accidents in the North yesterday.

Police last night arrested the teenage driver of the car involved in a road crash which claimed the lives of four people. The 19-year-old was questioned about an accident which occurred on the Moorlough Road near Lisnaskea, Co Fermanagh and was later released on bail pending further inquiries.

Four young people who were sitting in the back seat of a car died when it smashed into a tree in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, a motorcyclist was killed in a crash with a car outside Castlewellan in Co Down yesterday afternoon. The collision took place on the Bann Road between Castlewellan and Banbridge shortly after 4.30pm.

The victims of the earlier crash (two girls aged 16 and 17 and two men aged 21) were crammed into the back of a green Honda Civic car when it left careered off Murlough Road near Lisnaskea in Co Fermanagh at around 3.30am.

The four backseat passengers died while the front seat passenger and driver were hurt, but their injuries are not life-threatening. The front seat passenger was also 19. Both he and the driver are believed to be from Newtownbutler. Police markings show the car had begun to skid for about 100 metres and had ploughed alongside a ditch for 70 metres before it struck the tree.

The scene of devastation yesterday morning was unbearable for many teenagers who came out to lay flowers at the tree which is just opposite the Moorlough Lake which is set in the background of beautiful scenery in Co Fermanagh in total contrast to the scene of carnage just across the road.

PSNI inspector Ian Kennedy who was on the scene soon after the accident said: “This was an absolute atrocity, an atrocious scene to come across for us, for the fire brigade and for the ambulance people, to come across four young people, all in their health, all from the same locality and all killed in one accident at the one time is unbelievable.

“This is going to have a profound effect on any community but particularly when this happens in a small rural area like Fermanagh. It is going to have a terrible impact, but the community are close and everybody will try and help each other through this,” he said.

Local SDLP councillor Fergus McQuillen said: “I know three of the four families of the dead children, I would know their fathers and mothers and it will take this region an awful time to get over this. It’s only a year ago another young lad died on the same road, the Donagh Road and the year before that a young guy on a motorbike was also killed there, but I can’t blame the road service or anybody for this and I’m not in the game of blaming anybody.”

Police later named the victims as 16-year-old Anita Mary Swift from Newtownbutler, 17-year-old Danica Mary O’Rourke from Lisnaskea, 21-year-old Johnathan Kevin McDonald, from Newtownbutler, and 21-year-old Peter Seamus Leonard from Lisnaskea.

The driver and front-seat passenger, who are being treated for their injuries at the Erne Hospital in Enniskillen, were also from Newtownbutler.

The driver and front-seat passenger were able to free themselves from the wreckage.

It was not clear how many of the back-seat passengers were wearing seatbelts. There was an outpouring of sympathy from Assembly members and councillors in the area.

Nationalist SDLP councillor Fergus McQuillan said he knew the families involved.

“The two parishes of Newtownbutler and Lisnaskea are shocked and deeply saddened by this news that they have woken up to this morning,” he said. “A tragedy of this scale has a massive impact on a small place like Fermanagh and no words can express the deep hurt and grief felt by the entire community.”

His party colleague, the Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA Tommy Gallagher, said the entire community was reeling.

“These were young people in the prime of their lives,” he said.

“Unfortunately the death toll on our roads continues to rise and that is something that must be given greater attention.”