THE SILENCE – that was one of the most striking aspects of yesterday’s tragic car crash that claimed the lives of four teenagers, according to a priest called to perform the Last Rites.
Fr Kevin McNamara of St Mary’s Cathedral in Killarney received a call from gardaí at 7.30am yesterday and made his way out the Barraduff Road, not yet knowing the scene that would greet him.
“It was utter devastation, utter devastation. I stood on the embankment as the two lads who were still alive were taken by ambulance to Tralee and it occurred to me that here was a road that was usually busy with traffic and the silence now was deafening.
“I blessed and anointed the bodies of the three young people who had died and I just thought as they were removed so sensitively and tenderly by the emergency services what a terrible, saddening tragedy.
“My thoughts, all our thoughts go out their families,” Fr McNamara added. “To lose one loved one in an accident like this is phenomenal but to lose two, as one family have, doesn’t bear thinking about, it’s just unbearable.”
“There’s an awful sense of helplessness and all we can do is stand shoulder to shoulder with the families. There’s a real raw grief here today and the shadow of their four deaths is tangible,” he said.
As Fr McNamara returned to Killarney where he prayed for the dead and their families at 10.30am Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, gardaí and emergency services, including firefighters, remained at the scene.
The silver Hyundai Accent remained lodged in the ditch, its roof removed by firefighters using cutting equipment as they battled to remove the casualties from the vehicle, only for three to be pronounced dead at the scene.
Beside it, two trees bore the marks of the collision, their barks stripped away to reveal the bare trunks of the trees where the car had hit at speed, while all around the vegetation was flattened to the ground.
A Garda forensic crash investigator began examining the scene, identifying and marking out in red a 30-metre long set of skidmarks veering off the gentle left-hand bend, down the incline and into the ditch where the car came to rest.
Assistant Kerry county fire chief Michael Flynn said it had been a major operation for firefighters to remove the roof from the Hyundai and recover the casualties, but they had done so as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
“Like most people here, ourselves and the ambulance crews and the gardaí, they are all members of the community and they are all aware of these young people who live in the community,” Mr Flynn said.
“It’s hard for the services to do a job like this, early morning, late at night when it could be family members or relations of people in the services or someone they know in town. It’s always tough and, as in this case, very, very sad.”