Donegal has suffered several serious crashes involving multiple fatalities, although it does not have the highest number of fatalities by county, based on population.
January 30th, 2010: A father and son were killed in a two-car collision on the main Letterkenny to Derry road. John Gallagher (55) and his son Seán (24), Ramelton, Co Donegal, were on their way home after they left family to Derry City airport.
January 3rd, 2010: Joseph McLaughlin (23), a final-year engineering student at NUI Galway, was killed when he was struck by a hit and run driver. He was walking home alone from a local nightclub in Carndonagh when a car knocked him down on a narrow country road.
December 13th, 2009: Garda Gary McLoughlin (24) from Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, was injured in a collision at Lisfannon on the Bridgend to Buncrana road when the patrol car he was in was hit by another car involved in a Garda pursuit. He later died at Letterkenny General. His colleague, Garda Bernard McLoughlin from Gurteen, Co Sligo, was also injured in the collision.
November 23rd 2009: Two Lithuanian men - aged 31 and 39 - were killed in a head-on collision. They were travelling on the N15 when their car collided with another vehicle north of Stranorlar near the village of Killygordon.
November 24th, 2009: A man in his 50s died in a two-car crash on the N15 at Cavangarden, Ballyshannon.
September 14th 2009: A 32-year-old An Post driver from Lifford died when his van crashed into a stationary combine harvester near Raphoe.
Also in September 2009, a 66-year-old man died of his injuries at Letterkenny General Hospital two days after a crash involving a red Toyota Carina and a black Toyota Celica at Dunlewey.
August 21st,, 2009: Conor Holmes (19) died after he was involved in a two-car collision on the N15 at the Haw, near Lifford. He was on his way home to Hillhead, Castlefinn, following an evening with friends.
In July 2009 a woman in her 50s died in hospital a week after she had been injured in a collision in Donegal.
May 3rd, 2009: Friends Gary McLaughlin (21) and Darren Downey (19), both from Burt, Co Donegal, died in a single-vehicle crash on the main N13 Derry to Letterkenny Road at Newtowncunningham. The men, who both played with the local GAA club, had earlier attended a 50th birthday party for Gary McLaughlin's father, Eunan.
April 19th, 2009: A man in his early 30s was killed and a second man in his late 20s was seriously injured when the car they were travelling in left the road and hit a fence on the Muff to Moville road in the townland of Clar. Both men were thrown from the vehicle.
March 18th, 2009: Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Kille from Lisnaskea, Co Fermanagh, was killed when he was struck by a lorry on the main street in Bundoran.
February 14th, 2009: A 21-year-old man died when the car he was driving crashed into a wall at The Rock, Ballyshannon in the early hours of the morning. Two other male passengers were treated for non life-threatening injuries at the scene.
November 9th, 2008: Father-of-six and mayor of Ballyshannon PJ Branley (58) who was driving a van, was killed along with his 40-year-old passenger Dessie McNulty from Ballintra, and the driver of a car, 17-year-old Michael O'Sullivan, from Ballyshannon. The two vehicles collided on a wide stretch of road at Ballymagrorty on the main road between Ballyshannon and Donegal town.
At Mr Branley’s funeral, Parish priest Fr Cathal Ó Fearraigh said at least 15 people died within a few miles of each other on the same wide stretch of the N15 in the past decade.
October 2nd, 2008: A 16-year-old boy was killed in crash between a car and a van at Moyle, Newtowncunningham on the N13.
September 5th, 2008: The Garda Ombudsman Commission and gardaí in Co Donegal began investigations into a fatal crash in the Border village of Muff. Paul McMonagle (22) from Derry died and another man was injured. A Garda car was involved in a pursuit at the time of the incident.
June 16th, 2008: Kerry Ann Meehan (16) and her three-month-old daughter Niesha were killed instantly when the car in which they were travelling hit an oncoming four-wheel drive vehicle towing a trailer full of sheep at Tullygay, three kilometres from Letterkenny. Ms Meehan's boyfriend Christopher Hanlon (18), who was driving the car, was seriously injured. Ms Meehan and her baby were later buried in the same coffin.
May 26th, 2008: Bernard Doherty (34) of Coolboy, Letterkenny, died in a crash at Kilross on the main Ballybofey to Letterkenny road. A Bus Éireann bus travelling from Derry with 28 secondary school students on board hit the car and overturned in a field.
May 24th, 2008: Martina McLernon (45) and her 15-year-old daughter, Louise, from Toome, Co Antrim were killed while out walking at Meenacuing, Gweedore, near An Chúirt Hotel when they were struck by a car that went out of control.
January 21st, 2008: Ciaran Herrity (28) died when his car hit a kerb and turned over at Bruckless, on the road between Donegal town and Killybegs.
December 1st, 2007: Barry Gallagher (24), from Killybegs was killed in a two-car collision near Inver.
February 18th, 2006: Five people were killed when an Audi belonging to retired Buncrana town clerk, Paul Doyle, was taken by Danielius Abartis (23), a Latvian man who was staying at Mr Doyle's home along with a number of other foreign men.
An inquest later heard Mr Abartis was over the legal alcohol limit when the car was involved in a head-on crash three miles outside Buncrana in the early hours of the morning. Mr Abartis died instantly. The four others who were killed, travelling in a white Volkswagen Vento, were Aija Porcika (38), her daughter Ginta Veite (19); Marita Kerpe (28) and Ricardas Bielskis (35).
October 8th 2005: Last year, Brendan Henderson (50), Seven Oaks, Waterside, Derry, was jailed for four years after admitting dangerous driving in the 2005 crash in which five people died. Henderson's car was on the wrong side of the road when it hit the car in which the five victims, all from the Inishowen peninsula, were travelling at Cross, Quigley's Point, Inishowen.
All five died at the scene. They were Rochelle Peoples (22); David Steele (23); Gavin Duffy (21); Charlene O’Connor (21) and Darren Quinn (21). Henderson suffered severe injuries and is now in a wheelchair.
September 11th, 2005: Three people were killed when a motorcyclist was involved in a collision with a Volkswagen Polo, which in turn collided with a lorry. Damien Quigg (49), from Dungiven, Derry, his wife Teresa, and Nora McGee (74) from Gortahork all died in the crash at Ballynacarrick on the N15 Ballyshannon to Donegal town road.
March 19th, 2005: In May 2008, Louise Cantwell (24), a beautician from Gortlarry, Carndonagh, was found guilty by a jury of dangerous driving causing the deaths of her two friends, Alice Mullan and Kelly Doherty, both 20, in a crash at Ballyargus, Redcastle, shortly after 3.30am on March 19th, 2005.
The friends had been attending a benefit in memory of another friend, Shane Toye (19), also from Carndonagh, who had died in a crash the previous year.
Cantwell was later given a three-year suspended sentence and banned from driving for five years.
July 8th, 2004: Three teenagers were killed when the vehicle in which they were travelling struck a bridge and plunged 3.04m (10ft) into a field near Ballymagan on the road between the Illies and Buncrana, five miles from the town.
Those who died were the driver of the silver Vauxhall Astra car, Shane Cuffe (18), Crana View, Buncrana, Owen Doherty (18), Cloncool Park, Buncrana, and Áine O'Leary (16), Selskor Rise, Townpark, Skerries, Co Dublin.
After that tragedy, “a boyracer's target group” was set up by Chief Supt Noel V White. In three months, 200 cars were seized for being dangerously defective or being modified without notifying insurance companies.
“But despite what we were finding, the general attitude of parents was that their sons were being harassed,” Supt O'Brien later said.
June 19th, 2004: Three Latvian men died in a crash at Grannie's Gap near Burnfoot. They were Danis Sters (18), Janis Rogis (21) and Maris Valbe (22). A fourth man was injured. It is believed the car they were travelling in hit a bridge before ending up in a ditch. They were discovered by a passerby.
June 12th, 2001: Sinéad McDaid, from Carndonagh, died after her car skidded on the road at Dunross, between Culdaff and Malin on the Inishowen peninsula. The single-vehicle crash occurred on a road where resurfacing works were being carried out by the council. Ms McDaid's family has conducted a long campaign to have the matter fully investigated.
Donegal County Council recently opened a public consultation process in advance of the preparation of the new draft road safety plan for the county, which will cover the period up to 2015.
Consultation closed on June 18th and the council said it hoped to publish the new plan “early in the summer”. The council's road safety officer could not immediately be contacted today.
According to the most recent figures published by the Road Safety Authority, there were 14 fatal crashes in Co Donegal in 2008, resulting in 18 deaths. Some 503 people suffered injuries. The toll made up 5.2 per cent of the national figure for deaths and injuries that year, broadly in line with the three previous years.