Family dies in crash on way to wake

The family was on its way to a relative’s funeral when the crash happened on the New Ross-to-Wexford road in Co Wexford, Irish media reported.

The family has been named by RTE and media outlets such as the Irish Times as Steve Alexander, a 49-year-old father of two; and Doug Alexander Jnr, a 42-year-old father-of-one, who were travelling with their parents, Lily and Doug Snr (both 75) when the crash happened.

The family is said to be from Ireland originally but to have been living in Illinois in the United States.

They were travelling in a car rented at Shannon airport in Co Clare to the home of Mrs Alexander’s sister, Winnie Keevey, in Lacken, New Ross, in Co Wexford, where her wake was being held.

The crash involved their rented BMW car and an articulated lorry. The car could be seen crushed beneath the lorry in photographs taken at the scene of the collision.

The Irish Times reported that firefighters based in New Ross and Wexford town freed the victims from the wreckage with cutting equipment in order to allow paramedics to attend to them, but that all four were pronounced dead at the scene.

Their bodies were later removed by ambulance to University Hospital Waterford in Ardkeen for post-mortems.

An Garda Síochána say they are investigating the possibility that the collision happened when the car went to turn right and was hit from behind, and the possibility that it followed another car they were travelling with in convoy which had successfully made a right turn.