THE scale of the horror witnessed in Donegal on Sunday night is the latest in a series of road tragedies in the county in recent years.
Donegal has suffered more than its share of road tragedies, including the most fatalities in a single crash in Ireland's history.
Last August, two people aged in their 20s died after the car they were travelling in struck a wall and a lamp-post in Bundoran.
The victims were Shiva Devine (20) from Belleek and Conor McAleer, aged in his early 20s and from Boa Island, Co Fermanagh. Another three others were seriously injured in the collision. A sixth uninjured passenger presented himself to Bundoran Garda station after the incident.
In April 2017, 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 near Quigley's Point.
September 2016 saw the deaths or two women, Kiara Baird (19) and Maria Wallace (38). They died after the car they were travelling in hit a pole at Glenfin road, Ballybofey. The man driving the vehicle was later charged with dangerous driving.
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.
In November 2015, Kevin McClintock (32) died when his car collided with an oncoming vehicle at Killyvery, which also killed youth worker Orla O’Reilly (28).
McClintock’s car veered on to the wrong side of the road before hitting her vehicle.
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.
