Two communities stunned after road crashes kill teens

TWO communities in Laois and Leitrim were rocked by tragedy as teenagers lost their lives in Christmas road accidents.

Kevin Bergin, 18, from Middlemount near Rathdowney, Co Laois, died outside his home in the early hours of Christmas Day after being knocked down by a car. It is believed he had just been dropped off after a night out in the nearby village of Ballacolla.

He was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 2am.

Gardaí at Abbeyleix are appealing for witnesses who saw a male pedestrian wearing a light coloured hoodie or a red Honda Civic near the scene immediately before the incident or shortly afterwards.

The tragedy happened on the R433, the main road from Ballacolla to Rathdowney.

Villagers in Drumkeeran, Co Leitrim, were stunned by the death of John Williams, 17, on Tuesday night when a car he had bought just earlier this month went out of control and crashed into a parked lorry.

A 16-year-old girl friend who was also in the Honda Civic car was taken to Sligo General Hospital recovering from injuries that include a broken collar bone.

The accident happened near the teenager’s home as he was driving into Drumkeeran on the Drumshanbo road at Sheena.

The devastated classmates of the Leaving Certificate student at nearby Lough Allen College gathered in the school on Christmas Eve to pray for the teen.

John, son of Eddie and Margaret Williams, was the youngest child in a large farming family. Parish Priest Fr Gerrard Alwill said: “The community is shattered by the tragedy.”

The deaths brought the annual toll on the country’s roads to 274 for 2008, 60 fewer than this time last year.