Monaghan debs crash: Devastated victim’s father describes trying to save his daughter and her best friend

“I got out there as quick as I could and tried to revive them."

The father of one of the victims of the fatal car crash in Monaghan this week has described how he tried to save his daughter and her best friend in the aftermath of the collision. The crash happened on the N54 at Legnakelly near Clones at around 6.45 pm on Monday (31 July). Kiea McCann (17) and Dlava Mohamed (16) tragically lost their lives in the collision, which also left Dlava’s sister Auin (18), Oisín Clerkin (18) and the car's driver Anthony McGinn (60) injured. The students had been on their way to attend a Debs ball for the class of 2023 at Largy College in Clones when the crash occurred.

Devastated victim's father describes trying to save his daughter and her best friend.

Speaking to The Irish Independent, Kiea's father Frankie McCann told of how he received a call immediately after the collision and had rushed to the scene. He told the paper:

“I got out there as quick as I could and tried to revive them with a woman that was there also. I had to move from my daughter to her best friend, but there was nothing I could do. All I could do was ask that they be put lying together. “There was great excitement here in the house before they went out. We had food and champagne and balloons, and it was going to be a great night. “They could have got a coach out to the hotel, but they wanted to drive in style, and my friend has a white BMW and he agreed to drive them. We had put red bows and everything on the car."

https://twitter.com/JOEdotie/status/1686397887259762688 Meanwhile, Kiea’s mother Teresa described her to The Irish Independent as a stunning girl who was bubbly, intelligent and good-natured. “She was great to everybody,” she said, adding that Kiea and Dlava, who was originally from Syria, had been best friends for years. "It will be hard on all the young people. Hard on all the friends," she also stated. Gardaí in Monaghan are continuing to appeal to anyone who may have witnessed the crash to contact them. Any road users who may have camera footage, including dash-cam footage, and were travelling on the N54 between Clones and Smithborough on Monday between 6.15 pm and 7.00 pm are asked to make such footage available to Gardaí. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Monaghan Garda Station on 047 77200, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.

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