DONEGAL has suffered more than its share of road tragedies down the years.
In April, teenagers Nathan Farrell (18) and Nathan Dixon-Gill (17), from the Buncrana area, died in a single-vehicle crash on the main Derry to Moville road.
Five young people also died in crashes a day apart in July 2016.
Dermot-Murphy Boyle (19) and Barney McGinley (28) were killed in a collision between their car and a van on the Letterkenny dual carriageway, while the following day three friends – Stephen McCafferty (19), Teresa Robinson (20) and Kaylem Ó Murachaidh (18) – died in a two-car crash on a back road between Letterkenny and Drumkeen.
The county also suffered the worst road accident in Ireland's history when eight men were killed in a collision between Clonmany and Buncrana in 2010.
Shaun Kelly (27), of Ballymagan, Buncrana, was convicted over the crash after admitting dangerous driving causing the multiple fatalities.
The victims included seven men aged between 19 and 23 who were passengers in his car, as well as 66-year-old Hugh Friel who was driving home from bingo.
In a study in 2013, Donegal was found to have the third-highest fatality rate of any county in the Republic.
The rate of 81 deaths per million of the population was twice the south's average of 41 deaths, according to the Road Safety Authority.
