Thoughts with sole survivor

FAMILY and friends of the sole survivor of the crash, Darragh Jones, 16, were yesterday saying prayers of thanks for his miraculous escape from death.

Darragh, from Killeagh, Farranfore, was injured in the crash in which the four other occupants of the car died and was reported to be improving in Kerry General Hospital where his condition was described as stable.

He was a front seat passenger in the Hyundai Accent and had to be cut from the wreckage by fire fighters from Killarney.

A friend said he was lucky to be in the seat which took the least amount of the impact: “We are all very relieved that he is on the road to recovery, but obviously the thoughts and prayers of the family are with those families whose children died in the crash.”

Darragh is a member of Firies GAA club and Farranfore/Maine Athletic Club.

Both Darragh and Brian Coffey, 19, who died in the crash, were pupils in the Presentation Secondary, Milltown, where Darragh was to go into sixth year next week.

School principal Cormac Bonner said the accident stunned everyone. “Both Darragh’s and Brian’s parents are lovely people.”

Brian Coffey was a talented GAA player who played last year on the Fossa/Listry minor football team. He also rowed with Fossa Rowing Club, a club that his grandparents Ray and Betty Coffey are very much involved in.

His parents Siobhan Coffey and Mick Clifford moved back to the Killarney area from Dublin a few years ago with their children.

GAA club chairman James O’Shea said the community was heartbroken and he remembered Brian as a strong lad, full of energy and who always gave his best when playing for Fossa.

Former Kerry mayor Bobby O’Connell, calling for a radical plan to educate young drivers on road safety, said it was time to stop the slaughter of innocents and young people on Irish roads.

“What can you say to parents who, after rearing children up to their teens, are inconsolable after seeing them swept away in a matter of seconds in some dreadful car crash?” he remarked.

“The road safety message doesn’t seem to be getting through to young people.

“Older drivers don’t drive after taking a few drinks any more. But a huge amount of fatal accidents now involve young people and there’s definitely a need for much more education on safety, in schools,” said the Castleisland FG councillor.