Gardaí appeal for witnesses to fatal Galway crash

GARDAÍ investigating a horror crash which killed the driver of a bus load of students and a van driver in Galway on Sunday night have appealed for witnesses to the incident.

The bus driver was yesterday named as Peter Last, 60, a married man with one child from Murrisk, Westport, Co Mayo.

He was originally from Scotland and was living in Mayo for the past decade.

The driver of the van was Alan Howard, a supervisor with a food company who was in his 30s, from Rockbarton Road in Salthill, Galway.

He was married last year and he and his wife have one child.

Gardaí yesterday renewed their appeal for witnesses as they try to discover the circumstances which led to the head-on crash on the N17 Galway-Tuam road.

The road, which was closed by gardaí with diversions in place, re-opened later in the afternoon following the completion of a Garda technical examination of the crash scene.

Superintendent Tony O’Donnell said yesterday that “serious issues” needed to be addressed by the investigators.

“Some very serious issues arise and hopefully the investigation will address all of those issues and be able to come to conclusions. It was a terrible, terrible tragedy,” said Supt O’Donnell.

The bus, owned by Mayo firm Michael Corduff, was travelling towards Galway with 27 students on board who were heading back to college in Limerick.

The students were taken to University College Hospital with up to 12 of them suffering from a number of non life-threatening injuries. All of them were subsequently discharged.

The accident happened at the townland of Glennafosha, about five kilometres south of Tuam.

Fr Stephen Farragher, Administrator of Tuam parish, said it was a “blessing” that more people were not killed.

“When I heard it was a bus full of students involved, I feared the worst but thankfully the bus had not turned over.

“Both drivers were already dead by the time we got there and we just said a prayer with them.

“There was an eerie silence on the bus because the students were still, I suppose, in a state of shock and the paramedics were trying to work through who was and who wasn’t injured.

“It was a terrible scene, not the kind of one you’d like to be called to too often,” said Fr Farragher.