A horrific car accident in which four members of an English family died at the weekend near a notorious Co Cork junction has shocked a small community. Some local people tried to pull the victims from the burning wreckage.
A six-year-old boy who survived the head-on impact was in a stable but critical condition at Cork University Hospital.
The collision between a Mitsubishi people carrier and an unladen cattle truck happened a 12.45 p.m. on Saturday afternoon at Ballydaheen, Castletownroche, about six miles from Mallow on the main Mitchels town-Killarney road. It was close to Skenakilla crossroads, where there have been numerous accidents.
Those who died were Mr Eric Pickford (45), of Stockport, Manchester, his wife, Gillian (35), her daughter, Emma Bintliff (14), and the couple's youngest son, Simon, aged three.
Their second son, Mathew, was pulled from the wreckage by an American tourist and a local man who managed to smash a rear window of the family car. He was rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital suffering from multiple injuries. The driver of the lorry escaped injury.
Visibility was good at the time, according to Mrs Hannah Griffin, who was serving customers in her public house nearby when "a very loud bang was heard", and four men in the bar rushed out to see what had happened.
"It was shocking. We knew something very bad had happened. The men saw flames starting to come from the car and the lorry and ran back in to get buckets to try to put them out, but I think at that stage it was already too late for those poor people.
"The emergency crews were on the scene very quickly, but what they met was horrendous. Everyone who helped was very shocked. We all were. There have been accidents here before but no fatalitie. This was the worst in living memory," Mrs Griffin said.
The stretch of road is regarded locally as very dangerous. It has been improved and realigned over the years.
An eyewitness, Mrs Maureen Logan, said she was driving from the local shop when she saw the two vehicles collide head-on. "The people carrier was approaching from the Mitchelstown direction, and there was a tremendous impact. I assumed nobody could have survived it. After that there was silence, just deathly silence, that's what struck me. I couldn't bring myself to go up to the crash scene.
"I could see flickers of flame starting under the wreck of the car and I think fuel was starting to leak out. The men were drawing water from the pub trying to put out the flames. The tractor unit of the lorry had started to blaze by then.
"When I looked again, the door of the unit was open and the driver was at the roadside. How he survived I don't know," she added.
Mr Ronnie Lenihan, an agricultural contractor, brought heavy equipment to the scene when a neighbour asked him to help. "The vehicles were embedded in one another and I pulled them apart. There was little anyone could do at that stage," he said. A garda who went to the scene said it was the worst road accident he had seen in more than 20 years.
Units of Mallow Fire Brigade aided by the Mitchelstown brigade arrived within minutes and put out the flames. They used cutting equipment to remove the bodies of the Pickford family members.
Post-mortem examinations were carried out at Mallow General Hospital.
It is understood the Pickfords had just arrived in Ireland and were on their way to Killarney for a holiday.
Relatives who arrived in Co Cork yesterday were contacted in England after a telephone number was found in Mrs Pickford's handbag.