Three die and six hurt as Christmas festival trip ends in carnage

Two cars, a small saloon and a people carrier, were involved in the head-on collision on Military Road, some 5km outside Dungarvan in Waterford, at 10am yesterday.

The smaller car exploded in an intense fireball seconds after impact, killing three men. Six were injured in the people carrier.

The adults left injured were named locally as Gary Fenton from Cobh and Mary Bermingham from Banteer in Co Cork.

Both were underwent emergency surgery last night.

The six injured in the people carrier were airlifted from the scene to Cork University Hospital (CUH) and University Hospital Waterford (UHW).

The four children are aged between six and 14 years. RTE is reporting that one of the children is special needs.

They had been travelling to the Winterval Christmas festival in Waterford city.

Meanwhile, gardaí initially suspected two had died in the gutted car but were horrified to discover, when they began a forensic examination of the charred vehicle, that a third person was dead on the rear seat.

All three deceased are young men but will need to be identified from dental records. One of the deceased is believed to be in his late teens.

It is understood they are not local to the Dungarvan area and were en route to a sports match at the time of the collision.

Two of the bodies remained at the scene until after 4pm when they were removed by hearse for post-mortem examinations.

The gutted vehicle has a Cork registration, but last night gardaí were still working to confirm if the owner was on board.

Such was the scale of damage that safety concerns meant forensic experts were unable to access the car until four hours after the tragedy.

The collision took place shortly before 10am on the Military Road, the N72, which acts as a bypass route for Dungarvan in west Waterford.

One vehicle was heading in the direction of Cork while the second, the people carrier, was heading in the direction of Waterford.

Ms Bermingham previously lost her brother in a Cork road tragedy in 2014.

Christy Bermingham died after his car crashed between Blackstone Bridge and Killeens, just off the N20 near Blarney.

Airlifts

Yesterday's horrific collision took place 1.5km from the Radley Engineering premises close to a humpback bridge and 1km from Coolnasmear junction.

It sparked a major emergency response in Waterford with eight ambulances, four Dungarvan Fire Brigade units and 20 gardaí responding.

"Gardaí wish to appeal for witnesses that travelled this stretch of road to contact Dungarvan garda station at (058) 48600," a spokesman said.

The airlifts were undertaken by the Waterford-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter and the Air Corps Agusta helicopter.