A HEARTBROKEN dad whose adult child was killed in a Donegal road tragedy feared last weekend’s death toll could have been worse.
He has now appealed to drivers to “slow down” in a bid to halt the county’s rising road death toll.
Three men lost their lives in two separate crashes in the county – while another man in Omagh and a woman in Dublin were also killed in a dark 24-hour period.
The three heartbreaking fatalities in Donegal means there have been seven road deaths in Donegal this year, compared to 10 for all of 2025.
Last night, the Donegal News was told of fears that a motorist was “speeding so fast” on Sunday that witnesses dreaded another tragedy.
He said: “I was driving early on the morning after Saturday’s crashes. I saw a light coming towards me at such speed.
“I thought it was a motorbike – but it was a car with a light out. I couldn’t believe the speed it was going.
“It was so fast I couldn’t make out the car’s reg plate. It was definitely speeding.
“One mistake and it would’ve been fatal, it would’ve been another fatality. People need to slow down, 100%.”
Photo: Brian McDaid.
The broken-hearted dad, who chose to remain private, wants stronger anti-speed measures to tackle excessive speeds.
He said: “We were chatting about that at home on Saturday night, saying that there so many accidents seem due to speed.
“Maybe Donegal County Council could erect bigger speed signs and more of them so people have no excuse about the speed they’re driving.
“Speed vans slow people down but you have so many drivers flashing. Measures like average speed cameras would help to slow them down.
“We need more common sense. There are so many distractions in cars nowadays because of hi-tech gadgets.
“I keep seeing people on phones in cars, in lorries, and tractors. Many accidents happen at night.
“Maybe motorists speed when the roads are quieter and there are less Garda cars around.”
The Donegal News this week reported that the number of specialist road safety gardai in the county has been slashed by third.
New figures from the Department of Justice and An Garda Síochána revealed that garda numbers within Donegal’s Roads Policing Units dropped by nearly 30% since 2009.
Personnel decreased by 10 from 34 in 2009 to 24 in March past with the two specialised gardaí sharing 12 roads policing vehicles between them.
Last weekend, Donegal men Caoilan Bushe (30) and Leon Shovlin (27) were killed when their car was in a collision with another vehicle on the N15 near collision near Barnesmore on Saturday.
Their tragedy followed by a second collision in Muff just hours later that caused the death on Sunday of Derry man Ashlea Harkin, who was in his 20s.
A fourth motorist, a woman in her 20s, died in a collision in Dublin on Saturday night.
Then, on Sunday morning, Tyrone dad-of-two Adrian Slevin, who was in his 30s, died following a two-vehicle crash in Omagh.
The sad news of all five deaths of the victims – who tragically died in Donegal, Dublin, and Tyrone – was being absorbed on Sunday while mourners wept at the funeral in Tipperary of GAA star Laura Kennedy (20), who died last Tuesday, May 12.