Carlow car crash: ‘Imagine rearing a child up to 20 and then gone, like that?’

Communities across the southeast were on Thursday grappling with the deaths of three young people in a “horrific” single-vehicle crash on a notorious stretch of road in Co Carlow the previous night.

Daryl Culbert (21) from Kiltegan, Co Wicklow, Katie Graham (19) from Arles, Co Carlow and Michael Kelly (25) from Nurney, Co Carlow were killed when the red Lexus car in which they were travelling on the N80 in the townland of Leagh, less than 10km from Carlow town, crashed into a tree at around 11.30pm on Wednesday.

A fourth occupant of the car, a man in his 20s from Ballinabrannagh, Co Carlow, was being treated for serious but non-life-threatening injuries in Beaumont Hospital on Thursday evening. He had initially been treated at St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny.

Local people responded quickly to a traumatic scene, after the crash impact caused a loud banging noise. The rear of the vehicle was partially engulfed in flames following the impact, and it sustained extensive damage.

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Supt Anthony Farrell, of Carlow Garda station, said that in his 25 years of service with An Garda Síochána, Wednesday night’s crash was “one of the most severe” he’d attended. “Young people in the prime of their lives just starting out. Certainly, [the] families are obviously devastated by the impact of this and news that they received,” he said outside the station on Thursday evening.

Supt Farrell said gardaí had no indication what had caused the crash, and that road conditions on the N80 at the time were dry, “albeit a bit slippy”.

[ Plan to upgrade Carlow road where three young people were killed has been in train for years ]

Gardaí believe that the four had travelled from a Circle K garage at Junction 5 of the M9 – a popular hangout for young car enthusiasts – to the village of Ballon on Wednesday evening. The crash occurred as they were moving back in the direction of the garage.

A section of the N80 was closed for much of Thursday to allow a Garda forensics unit to carry out investigations. Local undertakers removed the bodies of the deceased from the scene in separate hearses around lunchtime, and formal identification of the bodies was continuing at University Hospital Waterford on Thursday evening.

According to locals, the stretch of road where the crash occurred is generally regarded as dangerous, with several serious crashes occurring in recent times. Last September, a man died following a two-vehicle collision on the N80 at Gráig na Spideog, a short distance from where the three young people died on Wednesday night.

At nearby Nurney, cars lined a narrow incline in the centre of the village on Thursday evening as people called to the bereaved Kelly family home. Sitting in her car after calling to the house, a family friend of the Kellys said the family were “devastated”.

“They’re devastated, but they’re being very stoic. They’re a very well-known family,” she said, asking not to be identified.

“The pain is unimaginable,” she added. “They’ve lots of callers. They’re just at the beginning of something – they don’t know what they’re facing. It’s very difficult for everybody.”

It is understood that Mr Kelly had worked as an electrician, and, like the others who died, was a car enthusiast.

Fr Tom Little, the parish priest in Ballon, said the deaths of three young people was “a terrible loss”. Fr Little attended the scene of the crash on Wednesday night, and administered last rites to the victims.

“It’s a disaster, really,” he said. “The poor families, it’s terrible. Can you imagine rearing a child up to 20 [years old] and then gone, like that?”

“At that stage, they were ready to fly on to great things,” he said.

Laura Nolan was working at the Cocks Hatch on Thursday afternoon, a coffee shop adjoining the Fighting Cocks pub, and near to the scene of the crash.

“There’s a lot of speed on that road,” Ms Nolan said, who earlier had been serving coffees to emergency personnel responding to the crash.

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