Four people killed in Monaghan crash

wyndham

21 October 2006 09:22
Gardaí in Monaghan are investigating the cause of a fatal road traffic collision, which has resulted in the deaths of four people.

The two car head-on collision occurred at Kilnacloy, on the Monaghan to Threemilehouse road at 2.15am this morning.

Four men, all aged between 19 and 21, were pronounced dead at the scene.


A fifth man, aged 27, who was seriously injured was taken to Monaghan General Hospital.

He has since been transferred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin where his condition is described as critical.

All of those involved are from the locality.

The bodies of the deceased have been taken to Louth County Hospital, Dundalk, for post mortem examinations.

The scene of the collision is sealed off for a technical examination.

Separately, a pedestrian has been killed in a road accident in Co Wexford.

The 32-year-old man was hit by a car on the N25 at Ballygoman, Barntown, shortly before 10pm last night.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.


Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam

zAbbo

Jaysis, I'd prolly know some of those people.

Any more details ?

RIP

mike65

The two car head-on collision occurred at Kilnacloy, on the Monaghan to Threemilehouse road at 2.15am this morning.

Four men, all aged between 19 and 21, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Suspect thats the nub of the matter.

Mike.

Lorax

Jesus christ that was a horrible accident. 4 young mens lives gone in a second. Im just wondering how it happened, I saw the aftermath of the accident 1 of the cars was a green vw golf which didnt even look like a car any more it was so smashed. What are peoples thoughts, the usual, drinking, speeding, both?

seamus

If it's a head-on collision, someone was on the wrong side of the road. I would suspect they were cutting a corner. Drinking may have been a factor, but I wouldn't say speeding was.

Hotwheels

Very sad for the families of these young people...
The energy involved in head on collisions is frightening...

eamon234

While I have a lot of sympathy for the families involved being a parent, I think it's time for insurance companies to start screwing young people again - just to get them off the road. Nothing else seems to be working. I was 23 before I could afford my first car because insurance was so high and in hindsight that was probably a good thing. Kids have it way too easy these days. I hate to sound like a killjoy but the majority of 18-20 year olds out there driving right now have had no proper training (Ooh the theory test and driving test - that'll really create better drivers! - How dumb IS the Government???)). These guys pass all the tests and go straight back to driving the way they always did.
Why? Because they're young and they're stupid as we all have been at some stage. Maybe this new safety blitz by the Gardai will have some effect in slowing them down I really hope so.

kluivert

Am only up the road from the accident.

Very sorry to wake up in the morning and hear such an awlful story such as this.

Thoughts with the family and friends.

Listen driver ed is badly needed in this country.

I hope people who drink and drive every week will be touched by this and leave the car at hoem to night when they head out to night.

Never believe that it wont be you, ignorance to bliss till your sitting at a hospital bed or worst laying on one.

BrianD3

It looked like the Mk4 Golf (red car) took the impact a lot better than the Mk3 Golf (black car) which is not surprising. I believe 3 died in the Mk4 though. I don't really want to speculate but perhaps not eveyone in the Mk4 was wearing their seatbelt

Blut

I'm usually only driving in Dublin city mostly but was down the country there recently for a weekend and was shocked by some of the regional roads. The road going past my friends house, a small, unlit, winding, barely wide enough for two cars road had a speed limit of 80kph. This in comparison to roads like the three lane N11 in Dublin which have a speed limit of 60kph. Have to say it really boggled my mind, no way you could do 80kph on roads like that safely. Its no wonder all the major accidents you read about in the paper seem to be on country roads like that really.

Lorax

Lorax wrote:

I saw the aftermath of the accident 1 of the cars was a green vw golf which didnt even look like a car any more it was so smashed. What are peoples thoughts, the usual, drinking, speeding, both?

I've heard a few people today in the area saying they were playing "chicken", i don't know myself but if this was the case what can you do ?. no amount of laws, ads or Gardai on the roads seem to have no effect, over the past few weeks I've seen more and more people on the phone while driving , doesn't anything sink in with some people.

eamon234 wrote:

While I have a lot of sympathy for the families involved being a parent, I think it's time for insurance companies to start screwing young people again - just to get them off the road. Nothing else seems to be working.

We can't have insurance companies at that again besides it doesn't work, not all young people drive like idiots, and it's not all young people having or causing accidents either. It's always a small handful that ruin it for everyone.

eamon234 wrote:

Maybe this new safety blitz by the Gardai will have some effect in slowing them down I really hope so.

Personally I can't see it doing any good, it's always good to see more Gardai out trying to do something to help lower road accidents & deaths. At the end of the day the Gardai can't change a drivers attitude, only the driver can do that.

My thoughts are with the family and friends.

peasant

Blut wrote:

I'm usually only driving in Dublin city mostly but was down the country there recently for a weekend and was shocked by some of the regional roads. The road going past my friends house, a small, unlit, winding, barely wide enough for two cars road had a speed limit of 80kph. This in comparison to roads like the three lane N11 in Dublin which have a speed limit of 60kph. Have to say it really boggled my mind, no way you could do 80kph on roads like that safely. Its no wonder all the major accidents you read about in the paper seem to be on country roads like that really.

Go a bit further afield nearer the west coast and you will find plenty of such roads with a limit of 100 km/h :eek:

The N59 being a prime example

PauloMN

seamus wrote:

If it's a head-on collision, someone was on the wrong side of the road. I would suspect they were cutting a corner. Drinking may have been a factor, but I wouldn't say speeding was.

If someone cuts a corner, speeding is most definitely a factor.

furtzy

From around that area originally and according to some locals they were playing chicken....if thats the case then it beggers belief and you can't have any sympathy

mike65

The newspapers have got a picture of an instrument cluster which shows the speedo of one car stuck at 150 mph. Needless to say some people are proberly thinking that was the speed an old Golf was doing.

Mike.

seamus

PauloMN wrote:

If someone cuts a corner, speeding is most definitely a factor.

Well that's pretty much supposition. The N81 has a speed limit of 100km/h along much of its length. I think of plenty of corners on that road alone, where if you were doing 80km/h, you would need to cut the corner to stay on the road. Now, clearly if you need to cut the corner, then you are driving at an excessive speed, but that doesn't mean that you are actually breaking the speed limit or "speeding".

It's a personal gripe of mine - no amount of speed cameras will stop people driving at excessive speeds.

BrianD3

mike65 wrote:

The newspapers have got a picture of an instrument cluster which shows the speedo of one car stuck at 150 mph. Needless to say some people are proberly thinking that was the speed an old Golf was doing.

Mike.

Yep, when in reality judging by the damage the closing speed of the two cars on impact was probably around 100 mph. Eg one car travelling at 50 mph in one direction and the other at 50 mph in the opposite direction. Most people would regard 50 mph as a reasonable speed on a road like that and would be shocked at the amount of damage that occurs when two cars collide head on both doing 50.

Of course perhaps in this case the cars were doing much higher speeds before the crash with hard braking just before impact.

furtzy

furtzy wrote:

From around that area originally and according to some locals they were playing chicken....if thats the case then it beggers belief and you can't have any sympathy

looks like what i've heard could be right, it's all the talk round that area that they were playing chicken. if it's true i've no sympathy for the drivers, feel sorry for the passengers.

mloc

another example of evolution in action...

wyndham

The Sunday Times October 22, 2006


Fatal Monaghan crash link to convicted driver
Colin Coyle



GARDAI say both cars involved in the head-on collision that claimed four lives in Co Monaghan yesterday were owned by Dermot Thornton, one of those who died.
Four years ago he was arrested for making dangerous turns in a “high-powered rally car” around a parked vehicle on Bettystown beach in Co Meath. He was fined for driving without reasonable consideration, failing to produce an insurance certificate and failing to display learner plates and was severely criticised by the judge.



Thornton, 21, was driving three companions in one of the cars involved in the crash at 2am at Kilnacloy on the Monaghan-Threemilehouse road. One of the passengers, John McQuillan, 27, was in a critical condition in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth, last night. The other two passengers, Gary McCormack and Brian O’Neill, who both died, were from the Cabra housing estate in the village of Threemilehouse.

The fourth man who died was Ciaran Hagan, from Ballagh in Threemilehouse, who was driving the second car. All five are understood to have been close friends. All, apart from McQuillan, were in their late teens or early twenties.

The accident occurred on a straight stretch of road that has been resurfaced by Monaghan county council in the past year.

Father Joe McCluskey, parish priest in Threemilehouse, had attended the crash scene. “It’s a small village of 150 people, so this has devastated the entire community,” he said.

Dundalk Daily

Terrible tragedy this, cars should def be fitted with restrictors like lorries. Why have we cars that will do 200 mph when the limit is just over 70.

mike65

There could be huge pressure on the survivor if he recovers.

Mike.

MAYPOP

Dundalk Daily wrote:

Terrible tragedy this, cars should def be fitted with restrictors like lorries.

As already posted, it's entirely possible for crashes like this to happen at, or below, the legal speed limit.

ninty9er

mike65 wrote:

Suspect thats the nub of the matter.

Mike.

BrianD3 wrote:

It looked like the Mk4 Golf (red car) took the impact a lot better than the Mk3 Golf (black car) which is not surprising. I believe 3 died in the Mk4 though. I don't really want to speculate but perhaps not eveyone in the Mk4 was wearing their seatbelt

Being a 19 year old male driver, the amount of times I have to ask people to belt up would lead me to believe that this was the nub of the matter!!


Why does the media not go on a frenzy when 4 over 70s die on the roads in a weekend.

Is it because over 70s should be allowed to drink drive, speed and not wear a seatbelt...I'm sick of the abuse I get from people when they ask if I have a car and when I say I do..."oh mind your speed", "slow down", don't drink and drive now"

My reply is that over 40s are statistically more likely to do all 3, they just don't speed to the same extent of some muppets driving round in Golfs because they're cool.

How many over 40s on here had tuition in Ireland before passing their text outside of the last 20 years

gyppo

ninty9er wrote:

Why does the media not go on a frenzy when 4 over 70s die on the roads in a weekend.

Probably because the chances of 4 over 70's being involved in a 2 car head on collision in the early hours of the morning are remote.

ninty9er wrote:

Is it because over 70s should be allowed to drink drive, speed and not wear a seatbelt...I'm sick of the abuse I get from people when they ask if I have a car and when I say I do..."oh mind your speed", "slow down", don't drink and drive now"

My reply is that over 40s are statistically more likely to do all 3.

Your reply is based on what source - your opinion, or have you factual information to back this up?

unkel

When I read in the papers yesterday that both cars were owned by one of the drivers, my first thought was that they were playing chicken...

TigerTim

I can't critisize the young drivers as I drove like a lunatic when I was younger - was lucky & maybe never had enough power to do damage. I never encountered "playing chicken". This may be a stupid question but does that involve driving at each other & seeing who swerves to avoid a colision?.

joeblogg1

TigerTim wrote:

I can't critisize the young drivers as I drove like a lunatic when I was younger - was lucky & maybe never had enough power to do damage.

Agree I think a large part of it is the power available to these guys nowadays. When I was younger we drove round in old clapped out 1.1 Litre Escorts and 1.3L Cortinas so excessive speed was hard to come by

smemon

TigerTim wrote:

This may be a stupid question but does that involve driving at each other & seeing who swerves to avoid a colision?.

yes, also one of the cars apparantly had no lights on at the time of collision.

peasant

joeblogg1 wrote:

Agree I think a large part of it is the power available to these guys nowadays. When I was younger we drove round in old clapped out 1.1 Litre Escorts and 1.3L Cortinas so excessive speed was hard to come by

Naaa ...doesn't make a bit of difference. If someone is dead set on overplaying their hand, it can be achieved in any car.

Friend of mine spent a fair amount of time in hospital because he wanted to find out if it was true that you can't roll a Citroen 2CV. What he found out was that he couldn't do it driving forward ...using reverse at full speed on the other hand gave him several badly damaged vertebrae ...

Rudolph Claus

If the following 2 statements are true:
one of the cars had no lights on
They were playing chicken

then i`d just like to say good fooking riddance to the brain dead spas. Theres enough attention focusing on younger drivers with all this road deaths farce as it is without knobs like them killing each other. The same lad owned both cars apparently, hmmm. And why was a 27yr old taking part in this crazy little chicken game, you have to wonder about a 27yr old hanging around with 20/21 yr olds. Fookin simpletons the lot of them.

Youngsters are already being blamed for all the road deaths and these knobs have done nothing to help us, infact they`ve done the total opposite and provoked the minister into talking about loads of restrictions on newly qualified drivers, etc as a direct result of this incident. Least they cant do any more selfish acts on us now. Spas!

For the politically correct dopes amongst us, no amount of proposals/licences/gardai will stop a group of simpletons from having a game of chicken if they want to at 2:30am so dont start preeching.

gyppo

@ Nuttzy,

Your compassion is overwhelming.
I'm not condoning their actions, but these people were human beings, and their passing deserves more respect than your usual drivel. These people who were killed were somebodies brothers, sons, friends. Maybe you should voice your opinion to some of these if you want a reaction.

Heinrich

gyppo wrote:

@ Nuttzy,

Your compassion is overwhelming.
I'm not condoning their actions, but these people were human beings, and their passing deserves more respect than your usual drivel. These people who were killed were somebodies brothers, sons, friends. Maybe you should voice your opinion to some of these if you want a reaction.

So the fact that they were someone's brothers, sons, friends etc makes it OK. There seems to be enough evidence that they were acting irresponsibly and were a danger to other road users. What they appeared to be doing was disdraceful and they died as a result.

Can you give one valid reason why we should mourn their passing? The only saving grace in this tragedy is that they did not kill other road users.

This sort of bravado is such good fun until it goes horribly wrong. Maybe the brothers, sons, friends etc. might have been aware of the behaviour of these grand lads as one might assume that this was not the first occurance of the driving adventures!

furtzy

Heinrich wrote:

So the fact that they were someone's brothers, sons, friends etc makes it OK. There seems to be enough evidence that they were acting irresponsibly and were a danger to other road users. What they appeared to be doing was disdraceful and they died as a result.

Can you give one valid reason why we should mourn their passing? The only saving grace in this tragedy is that they did not kill other road users.

This sort of bravado is such good fun until it goes horribly wrong. Maybe the brothers, sons, friends etc. might have been aware of the behaviour of these grand lads as one might assume that this was not the first occurance of the driving adventures!

Couldn't agree more.

gyppo

Heinrich wrote:

So the fact that they were someone's brothers, sons, friends etc makes it OK. There seems to be enough evidence that they were acting irresponsibly and were a danger to other road users. What they appeared to be doing was disdraceful and they died as a result.

No, I never said it was ok. I did say that I did not condone their actions.

Heinrich wrote:

Can you give one valid reason why we should mourn their passing? The only saving grace in this tragedy is that they did not kill other road users.

There are at least two people who lost their lives who were not driving - are they as culpable as those who were driving? Are you honestly saying that anyone who acts stupidly deserves to lose their life?

Heinrich wrote:

This sort of bravado is such good fun until it goes horribly wrong. Maybe the brothers, sons, friends etc. might have been aware of the behaviour of these grand lads as one might assume that this was not the first occurance of the driving adventures!

Totally agree.

tbh

Heinrich wrote:

Can you give one valid reason why we should mourn their passing?

They were human beings. They were no better or worse than any of us. They may have been stupid, but they've paid a huge price for it.

jimmycrackcorm

ninty9er wrote:

Being a 19 year old male driver, the amount of times I have to ask people to belt up would lead me to believe that this was the nub of the matter!!


Why does the media not go on a frenzy when 4 over 70s die on the roads in a weekend.

Is it because over 70s should be allowed to drink drive, speed and not wear a seatbelt...I'm sick of the abuse I get from people when they ask if I have a car and when I say I do..."oh mind your speed", "slow down", don't drink and drive now"

My reply is that over 40s are statistically more likely to do all 3, they just don't speed to the same extent of some muppets driving round in Golfs because they're cool.

How many over 40s on here had tuition in Ireland before passing their text outside of the last 20 years

I don't know what news reports you read but it would be a sure bet to wage that more under 30's will die in weekend accidents during the rest of the year than over 70's.

Whatever level of tuition the over 40's, they are far safer on the roads, with the odd exception of course...

Heinrich

tbh wrote:

They were human beings. They were no better or worse than any of us. They may have been stupid, but they've paid a huge price for it.

They are now dead for a reason! I don't see the sense in your comment as to whether they are no better nor worse...

The passengers were well aware of the manner in which the drivers behaved and had the had any sense they would not have gotten into the cars.

Beware of misplaced sympathy. If there have been innocent roadusers, perhaps with children involved in the collision I would have the deepest sympathy for them but sadly the budding James Deans do not come into the equation.

tbh

Heinrich wrote:

They are now dead for a reason! I don't see the sense in your comment as to whether they are no better nor worse...

The passengers were well aware of the manner in which the drivers behaved and had the had any sense they would not have gotten into the cars.

Beware of misplaced sympathy. If there have been innocent roadusers, perhaps with children involved in the collision I would have the deepest sympathy for them but sadly the budding James Deans do not come into the equation.

your point is well made, I just think you are being a little harsh. Of course they were stupid, but we've all done stupid things. You just think you are bullet-proof. They found out the hard way that you are not.

furtzy

tbh wrote:

They were human beings. They were no better or worse than any of us. They may have been stupid, but they've paid a huge price for it.

Sorry if it sounds harse but I for one can say they were worse than me. To go out on a public road for a game of chicken not giving a sh*t for anyone else who might be coming around the corner are the type of people we can do without

Heinrich

tbh wrote:

your point is well made, I just think you are being a little harsh. Of course they were stupid, but we've all done stupid things. You just think you are bullet-proof. They found out the hard way that you are not.

Not at all harsh, realistic. Indeed I have done stupid things in my time but not anything that would affect others in such a serious way. They paid the price but will the next lot learn from the experience? I doubt it.

smemon

Nuttzy wrote:

If the following 2 statements are true:
one of the cars had no lights on
They were playing chicken

then i`d just like to say good fooking riddance to the brain dead spas. Theres enough attention focusing on younger drivers with all this road deaths farce as it is without knobs like them killing each other. The same lad owned both cars apparently, hmmm. And why was a 27yr old taking part in this crazy little chicken game, you have to wonder about a 27yr old hanging around with 20/21 yr olds. Fookin simpletons the lot of them.

Youngsters are already being blamed for all the road deaths and these knobs have done nothing to help us, infact they`ve done the total opposite and provoked the minister into talking about loads of restrictions on newly qualified drivers, etc as a direct result of this incident. Least they cant do any more selfish acts on us now. Spas!

For the politically correct dopes amongst us, no amount of proposals/licences/gardai will stop a group of simpletons from having a game of chicken if they want to at 2:30am so dont start preeching.

well said. Lets make it clear though that we don't KNOW thats what they were doing. But the evidence so far suggests they were.

No seatbelts
No Lights
Speedo clocked at 150km/hr
2 cars owned by same person
2.15am

then there's rumour of houseparties.. now, if indeed these guys were playing chicken etc.. combined with the above, i have absolutely no sympathy for them whatsoever.

heart goes out to the poor families they left behind though.

i honestly can't understand how stupid people can be. Really, it's incredible.

unless this was suicide, which i highly doubt, i would have thought no sane person or people could possibly do this.

as someone pointed out, what if there had of been pedestrians.. someone with kids in the car.. someone broken down with a flat tyre nearby??

i mean, these guys presumably have gone through years of education.. hard work to buy cars...earn a living. I honestly can't understand the sheer waste of life and total disrespect they've shown to the families, themselves and to life in general.

tbh

tbh wrote:

They were human beings. They were no better or worse than any of us. They may have been stupid, but they've paid a huge price for it.

Would you mourn their passing if they had hit a car with a family in it and killed all of them ?
They were driving like idiots, playing chicken on a road with no care for themselves or anyone else for that matter, they got what they deserved and now our roads are a bit safer with them not on it.

Seth Brundle

Whilst they may have been driving stupidly (~150km/ on a crap road with no seatbelts!), nobody deserves to die

mike65

Friend of mine spent a fair amount of time in hospital because he wanted to find out if it was true that you can't roll a Citroen 2CV. What he found out was that he couldn't do it driving forward ...using reverse at full speed on the other hand gave him several badly damaged vertebrae ...

The dope! Driven on C4 (I think) proved that a few years back.

No amount of restrictions will stop assholes killing themselves or others.

Mike.

kbannon

kbannon wrote:

Whilst they may have been driving stupidly (~150km/ on a crap road with no seatbelts!), nobody deserves to die

If they had half a brain at the time and thought this could be a dangerous act and chose not to do it they would all be alive today, in my eyes they took there own lives.

zAbbo

4 people die in car crash, tragedy.

4 people die in car crash while playing chicken with no lights on at 2am, not so much a tragedy.

Idiots is all I can say, I feel sorry for the family for the shame and sense of waste that they've brought to a small country town.

Seth Brundle

hellboy99 wrote:

If they had half a brain at the time and thought this could be a dangerous act and chose not to do it they would all be alive today, in my eyes they took there own lives.

Im not denying that. I just don't think people 'deserve to die'*


* child abusers and other rapist scum aside!

mike65

mike65 wrote:

No amount of restrictions will stop assholes killing themselves or others.

Agreed, and what about the people that hold no licence or insurance and are on our roads. I know of one person in my area that lost his licence and is still driving, the day he lost it he walked out of the court house and drove home :mad: .

byte

A fifth person has died now as a result of the accident.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/1023/rta1.html

drdre

in my opinion i think its mainly drink driving, and its mainly the countryside not dublin because of road conditions at night like lighting etc.

but i would like to send my regards to the guys that died.its a sad time for their family.