A5 upgrade: Victims' family calls for end to delays

A family that lost two siblings and an aunt in a crash on the A5 hope they will be the last deaths on that road, a family friend has said.

It comes after hundreds attended a meeting in Omagh, County Tyrone, to hear demands for the long-delayed upgrade of the road to be completed.

A public inquiry into the scheme will resume on Monday.

The project was first approved in 2007 but has been beset by delays over funding issues and legal challenges.

Siblings Dan and Christine McKane and their aunt Julia McSorley were killed in a crash on the A5 near Aughnacloy two weeks ago.

Family friend Aodhán Harkin told the meeting that the family support the Enough is Enough campaign, which is demanding the upgrade of the A5.

"They want their three siblings to be the last who are killed on this road," he said.

"They are devastated and rocked, they have lost three members of the family and four other members of the family have be injured and are still in Belfast in hospital recovering.

He added: "I'm here on their behalf and on behalf of the communities who have suffered loss.

"We can't go on."

The proposal to upgrade the A5 has faced opposition, such as from the campaign group Alternative A5 Alliance (AA5A).

The group - made up of farmers, landowners and others with an interest in the County Tyrone area - oppose the compulsory purchase of land to construct the road and have raised environmental issues around the project.

Their last legal challenge, in 2018, resulted in the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) quashing plans to proceed.

Kate Corrigan, whose son Nathan died along with Peter McNamee and Peter Finnegan on the A5 road in December 2021, told the public meeting she was "begging and pleading" with the objectors to think again.

"They have a choice - as a bereaved family, we don't have any choice except you try to put your foot out the door every day and live your life as best you can," she said.

She said she had been hit hard by the recent deaths on the road.

"I could hardly watch the news that evening - and the following morning because I knew they were waking up to the same horrific reality.

"So to the objectors, they're wakening up each new day and they're thinking of what legal challenge they can put to the commissioner and the Department for Infrastructure's legal team and what blockages they can put in place.

"Every day we're stepping out into a new reality and we don't have any choice," she added.

The A5 connects Londonderry to the Irish border at Aughnacloy.

The planned upgrade, which is estimated to cost about £1.6bn, would improve the road and access to Dublin from the north west.

The flagship scheme featured in the New Decade, New Approach deal, which restored power-sharing in Northern Ireland in 2020 after three years of political deadlock.

The scheme would be the single largest road scheme ever undertaken in Northern Ireland.