Difficult weather conditions and driver confusion may have contributed to a single-vehicle car crash on Monday that killed two young girls in Edgeworthstown, Co Longford.
Ava Carberry (6), Oranmore, Co Galway, and Michella Logan (9), Kilcock, Co Kildare, were among six occupants of a five-seater BMW 116 hatchback that hit a clay embankment built to block off a back road.
The girls were travelling in the car with their mothers.
Michella was thrown from the car and was found lying on the ground by emergency services. She died at the scene. Ava died in hospital a short time later and another eight-year-old girl remains in a critical condition after three hours of surgery in the Midlands Regional Hospital, Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
The fourth child was transferred to Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin. The two adults were not badly hurt, although one of them remained in hospital last night.
The crash occurred on the Old Longford Road, the former N4 route, which had been sealed off 18 months ago to create a cul-de- sac serving local homes and a pet food factory.
Some locals said the driver may have thought the road was still the N4. Gardaí have been told that misty, wet conditions may have contributed to the crash.
Late yesterday, a woman voluntarily went to a local Garda station to assist with the crash investigation. Relatives of the victims also visited the crash scene. The badly damaged car was spotted shortly after the accident by another motorist, who called the emergency services at 9.28pm.
The first crew at the scene, a local part-time fire brigade, arrived within four minutes.
They were greeted by a horrific scene, said chief fire officer Declan Kilcline. Two of the girls were critically injured and the other four occupants were all badly hurt.
"It was very traumatic," he said. The crew had to identify those with the most severe injuries.
"All accidents are traumatic but when they arrived at the scene the two children were critically ill and some of the firemen knew the people involved, which made it even more traumatic.
"They had to prioritise whose injuries were worse and started working on the children straight away.
"They worked very intensely on them and some of the firemen went in the ambulance to Mullingar to assist any way they could.
"The weather conditions were misty and the road would have been wet at the time," he added. "There could have been localised patches of fog in the area, but there wasn't at the time of our arrival.
"The stretch of road was the national primary route, but a bypass for the town opened about a year-and-a-half ago and it became a cul-de-sac for local residents to get into their houses."
Supt John Gantley said gardaí would do everything to establish the cause of the crash.
Portable flood lighting from Longford fire station was put in place at the scene yesterday, to assist gardaí with their technical examinations.