Kurdish family killed in Galway road tragedy had been planning to move to Carlow

Karzan Sabah Ahmed, Shahen Qasm and baby Lena, who were killed in a crash on the M6 outside Ballinasloe, Co Galway, last week. Picture: Kurdish Irish Society

The Kurdish family tragically killed in a horror road traffic collision last week had been planning to move to Carlow from Galway and had just viewed a property.

Karzan Sabah Ahmed, his wife Shahen Qasm and their eight-month-old daughter Lena died in the three-car crash last Thursday evening on the M6 motorway at Poolboy, Ballinasloe. 

It occurred when another motorist, Jonasz Lach, entered the motorway on the wrong side and crashed head-on into their vehicle. Mr Lach also died, while the driver of another car impacted by the collision was treated for their injuries.

It has now emerged that Mr Ahmed's family in Kurdistan only learned of the tragedy on Facebook after a page for the Kurdistani community in Ireland featured the story, not knowing at first that Kurdish people had been involved.

PhD studies

Hiwa Wahab, co-founder of Kurdish Art Nergez Group Ireland and Kurdish Radio Ireland, told RTÉ's Morning Ireland the family had been due to return home to visit family and introduce baby Lena to them, and had also been readying to move to Carlow, as Karzan had recently secured a new position there, having completed his PhD studies at NUI Galway.

"The family arrived on a student visa and Karzan was doing PhD research to the university and he had a plan to move to Carlow," Mr Wahab said.  

The day he was involved in the accident, he was there to view a property so he can bring his family to Carlow and start a new life over there. Unfortunately on his way back to Galway on Thursday evening, he was involved in this tragic accident."

Mr Wahab also confirmed earlier reports that Mr Ahmed's family only learned of the crash later on the internet.

"That is right, on Thursday night we saw that news. Normally we do publish all the stories in Ireland, we do translate it to Kurdish and publish on our Facebook page."

Brother made contact

He said the story was published without the knowledge that a Kurdish family was involved but three hours later Karzan's brother made contact, as Karzan's phone had not been working for 20 hours.

"Three hours later we have received the bad news," Mr Wahab said. 

"The family has been in touch with us. We do update them with every minute, every news regarding Karzan's family to them."

He said the success of Karzan's studies had been acknowledged by the Kurdish community here and news that he had completed his studies would have been "massive news" on his planned return visit, along with the birth of Lena.

Mr Wahab said the plan was now to begin work on efforts to repatriate the bodies, following talks with gardaí.

"Hopefully once they [gardaí] release the bodies we will start to do the repatriation process and we will organise a donation for them in Ireland," he said.