Still numbed with shock, school friends Shane Finegan (18) and Graham Crosby (17) were slowly coming to terms with the magnitude of yesterday's tragedy.
"We would both normally be on the bus, but I was playing golf for the school and he was studying," said Shane. "I can't believe it . . . this is going to be devastating for the area especially with all the funerals in the days ahead."
Both of the Leaving Cert students, who normally travel on the Navan bus each day with 50 other people from the Kentstown area of Co Meath, were waiting anxiously in the A & E unit of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda to hear news of friends and relatives.
Children in school uniforms - many wearing head braces - lay on trolleys and were rushed through the narrow corridors of the A & E unit.
In all 26 patients were brought to the hospital following the crash, six of whom were in a serious condition last night.
Parents, relatives and school friends gathered, speaking in hushed tones of the horror that had unfolded.
Some stood silently as they waited for news of their loved ones, while others hugged each other as they received news of the condition of their children.
The father of one girl with serious head injuries said that shattered glass appeared to be the cause of many of the injuries.
"Many were injured as shattered glass flew into their faces," he said. "One young girl's face was riveted with glass, such was the impact of the crash."
The tragedy has been made more acute given that most of the victims came from the small parish of Kentstown a few miles outside Navan. "It is a small place, Kentstown. We all live within a one-mile radius of each other," said Shane Finegan, "so everybody knows everyone else."
Fr Richard Goode, a parish priest attached to the hospital, spent much of the evening with parents. He said the signs were encouraging for many of the injured students. "We have seen broken bones and we are praying that they all should survive," he said.
A sister from the Medical Missionaries of Mary who was helping to counsel shocked parents said there was widespread relief among many just to see the faces of their children. "Parents are obviously very relieved to see their children alive, but a lot are in a state of shock and will require counselling," she said.
Despite the chaos of the crash and its aftermath, doctors and nurses appeared to have the situation under control. Niall O'Connor, a consultant from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, said staff "responded magnificently" and had activated the hospital's emergency plan as soon as they became aware of the scale of the accident.
Patients began arriving at the hospital at 5.14pm - 15 girls and 11 boys all over the age of 14 - and special accommodation was arranged for relatives at the hospital. While many parents faced an anxious overnight wait, many friends and relatives expressed relief that so many had escaped much more serious injuries. "My brother Gabriel (16) is fine," said Shane Finegan. He is in shock but that is about all. There are others like that."