Priest who anointed crash victims appeals to all drivers to slow down

The Catholic priest who administered the Last Rites at the roadside to the victims of a head-on collision in Borris-in-Ossory, Co Laois, last Saturday has appealed to all drivers to stop speeding.

Fr Jackie Robinson, parish priest in Borris-in-Ossory, said the crash in which the men and a woman lost their lives was the worst he had ever been called to in his career.

"It was one of the worst, in fact it was the worst accident I've ever been involved with in my 35 years as a priest.

"I went down after being called by the guards and the first thing I saw was a lovely, beautiful girl with her legs sticking out of the car and my heart just went."

The damage to the cars was so extensive that Fr Robinson thought the fire brigade had already used cutting machinery to dismantle them.

"The engine of the car the young Polish man was driving was completely ripped out, the passenger door was around 100 feet away and the front tyre on that side was 100 feet away as well.

"I asked had the fire brigade taken out the engine, but they said they hadn't touched the car. It was horrific, absolutely horrific."

The other car in which three men from the Limerick and Clare area had been travelling had left the road and was a considerable distance away from the first vehicle.

"The car was in a ravine, it had gone completely over the barrier at the side of the road, it was about 30 or 40 feet away. I had to go down into the ravine.

"The young man who survived, the only one who survived, had been cut from the car when I got there, but the other two . . . I couldn't go into what I saw, I couldn't describe it. I just anointed them as best I would and said an act of contrition."

Fr Robinson urged all drivers, but particularly young men to reduce their speed.

"If only all the young people, particularly all the young men had seen the scene I saw yesterday. I wonder would it make a difference? We seem to be getting somewhere in the battle against drink driving, but not speed."

Fr Robinson said he had himself driven too fast when he was a young man.

"I'm almost 60 now, but when I was a young priest my mother wouldn't get into a car with me. She used to say 'what if a bull came out of a field in front of you?', but it's only that I'm older I realise that I was speeding. Youth seems to equal speed. We have to find some way to sort that out."