THE FOUR men who were killed in a road-traffic collision near Newry, Co Down, on Sunday were Portuguese nationals from the same city.
The men, all from the northern city of Aveiro, were understood to be working with a Portuguese company involved in the construction of the new terminal building at Dublin airport.
They died when their car was involved in a head-on collision with a tanker lorry at a series of bends on the road to Tandragee. A fifth man, also from Aveiro, was seriously injured. He is said to be in a stable condition at Newry’s Daisy Hill hospital.
The man’s wife and two children live in Portadown, Co Armagh, and the men were on their way to visit them when the accident took place on Sunday.
The tanker driver is deeply shocked but was otherwise not seriously hurt.
Details about the men’s background emerged as the last of six victims critically hurt in weekend road accidents lost her life yesterday.
A woman injured in a single-vehicle road accident in Co Fermanagh died in hospital. Two men travelling in the car with her were also injured in the accident in Tempo.
Her name has been withheld on request of her immediate family.
The other fatality was a 47-year-old motorcyclist who was involved in a collision outside Omagh, Co Tyrone. He was named yesterday as Robert Hutchinson, a mechanic with an address outside Cookstown, Co Tyrone.
He had acted as a mechanic for two road racers killed earlier this year. Mark Young and Andrew Neil died in race accidents in May and June.
The deaths bring the total on Northern roads so far this year to 79.