One of the five teenagers injured when the car in which they were travelling hit a wall at Nine Stones, Co Carlow, remains in what gardaí described as a critical condition.
The driver of the car, Eamon Kavanagh, who was aged 16 and therefore did not have a licence and was consequently uninsured, died when the vehicle hit a concrete wall where a narrow road, coming off Mount Leinster, crossed a cattle grid, south of Myshall.
It is understood that the third-year student died instantly. His father, James Kavanagh (48), was given a three-year prison sentence last Friday after pleading guilty to 30 counts of causing harm to animals. His mother, Jennifer Kavanagh, received a 12-month suspended sentence after she too pleaded guilty.
On Monday, Independent local councillor for Muinebeag Charlie Murphy, who comes from Myshall where the Kavanagh family live, said the family should be left to grieve and to bury their son.
Another councillor, Denis Foley of Fine Gael, said one of the four passengers was a relative and remained in hospital.
Uninsured
“He has a broken nose and a bruised spleen. He’s in hospital but he’ll be okay, thank God.”
Cllr Foley acknowledged the circumstances of the crash, that Mr Kavanagh was an underage driver and thus unlicensed and uninsured.
“It looks that way,” he said, adding: “I’m not going to comment on that.”
He said the crash occurred in “a very, very quiet area. There’d be no one up there most of the time. I believe they were just going out for a bit of a spin in the car. They didn’t go out intending to do anything wrong”.
"The way it turned out, they were lucky they weren't all killed. "
There was fog or low cloud at the time of the crash – about 5am on Sunday.
“It’s a very dangerous place coming down from the Nine Stones,” said Cllr Foley who described Mr Kavanagh as “a very good lad and well respected in school, a good scholar and that”.
On Monday, his school, Borris Vocational, posted condolences on their social media page.
“This is a terrible tragedy for the family, our school and our community,” it said.
Deeply saddened
It continued: “We are deeply saddened by these events. Our sympathy and thoughts are with Eamon’s parents, brother and sister, their wider family and many friends.
“Eamon was a very popular 3rd Year student and will be greatly missed by all who knew him.”
Tributes and messages of condolences were being paid to Mr Kavanagh on social media. “Make everyone smile up there,” said one; “God love the poor family, may he rest in peace,” said another.
Gardaí said on Monday that their investigation into what happened was continuing and there was no update. However, they repeated their plea for anyone with relevant information to contact Carlow Garda station on 059 9136620, or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111.
