{"id":317023,"date":"2026-02-25T20:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T20:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/317023\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T20:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T20:05:07","slug":"two-teenagers-killed-in-co-donegal-road-crash-named-locally-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/317023\/","title":{"rendered":"Two teenagers killed in Co Donegal road crash named locally \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two young men have died following a crash between a car and lorry in Co Donegal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The teenagers killed in the road traffic collision in St Johnston on Tuesday night have been named locally as Daniel Cullen and Caoimhin Porter.<\/p>\n

Both were 18 and from the Shantallow area of Derry. They died after the car in which they were travelling collided with a lorry.<\/p>\n

A third man, the 18-year-old driver of the car, suffered serious injuries and was transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.<\/p>\n

The three were returning to Derry from Asda in Strabane when the crash occurred on the R236 road at about 11.15pm. Their Vauxhall Corsa collided with a lorry towing a cattle trailer on the main Lifford-Derry road.<\/p>\n

Local curate Fr Damien Nejad attended the scene at about 1am and administered the last rites to one of the young men at the scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very, very sad,\u201d Fr Nejad said. \u201cI said a prayer over the body of a young man. There is just shock in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the young men was pronounced deceased at the scene, while the other died a short time later at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry.<\/p>\n

Derry-based cleric Fr Michael Canny met with the bereaved families on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cTheir family and their friends are in total shock,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a close-knit community that sticks together, but nevertheless their lives are now going to be changed forever. We also pray for the young man in hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur thoughts and the thoughts of most of the people in the city are with the families who are totally devastated to have received this news last night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Shantallow Community Centre opened its youth wing to offer support on Wednesday. Grief counsellors were also on site for assistance.<\/p>\n

The collision occurred close to the Presbyterian Church and the manse house, at a known blackspot.<\/p>\n

Local Presbyterian minister Rev Craig Wilson said: \u201cIt\u2019s terrible. We have families devastated and the loss of two teenage lives is desperate. We heard the sirens going on Tuesday night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The road was closed for a technical examination by Garda forensic collision investigators, who arrived at about 10.30am on Wednesday. Local diversions were put in place.<\/p>\n

Foyle MP Colum Eastwood said the incident was a \u201cprofound tragedy\u201d. He said: \u201cToday and the days ahead will be unimaginably difficult. But I know that people in Derry and Donegal will offer them every possible support to get through this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donegal coroner Dr Denis McCauley was notified and postmortem examinations will take place in due course.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed are appealing to anyone who may have witnessed the collision to come forward.<\/p>\n

Road users who may have camera footage, including dash-cam footage, and were travelling in the area at 10.45pm-11.45pm on Tuesday night are asked to contact garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information is asked to contact Letterkenny Garda Station on 074 9167100, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda station.<\/p>\n

There have been 39 road fatalities so far this year, including 18 in January and 21 in February.<\/p>\n

Since Saturday there have been 11 road deaths, including the two in Donegal on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

A 16-year-old, Mia Lily Keogh O\u2019Keeffe, died in a hit-and-run in Co Meath.<\/p>\n

A couple in their 40s, Brian and Grace Frisby, died in a two-car crash in Tramore, Co Waterford.<\/p>\n

Three people died in a crash on the Moy Road, Co Tyrone, and a woman in her 80s was killed in a single-vehicle crash at Eyrecourt, Co Galway.<\/p>\n

A motorcyclist in his 50s died in a road traffic collision in Co Sligo.<\/p>\n

A man aged 36 died following a two-vehicle crash in Co Tyrone. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two young men have died following a crash between a car and lorry in Co Donegal. The teenagers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,1485,61,60,43,11318],"class_list":["post-317023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-donegal","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-road-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}