Three sisters and a child injured in a fatal wrong-way crash on the M9 motorway have a "long recovery ahead", friends said in an update.
Sisters Ella Hendricken, Niamh Kinsella and Alma Kinsella, aged in their 20s and 30s, were rushed to hospital after their car was struck on the M9 as they drove to Dublin Airport to travel for a wedding. They were travelling with a child when their Hyundai was hit by a BMW being driven the wrong way by teenagers at around 3am on August 16.
All five teenagers - Joe Carthy, Alex McCarthy, Kamil Pustkowski, Jeremy O'Brien and Jack Kennedy - died in the crash. Two of the sisters were in a critical condition while the other sister and the seven-year-old were in a serious condition.
Friends' update on recovery
Friends of the sisters have now shared an update on their journey after the head-on crash, saying they all face a "long recovery ahead" but are optimistic the family will make a full recovery.
One friend, speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday, said: "They have a long, long recovery ahead of them. One of them has spinal injuries and there are a lot of broken bones. [The child] broke a leg. People are relieved none of them are in a brain specialist hospital so that means none of them are brain-damaged.
"God forbid there's a change. We think they will recover but how long that is going to take no one knows. Their injuries may be life-altering but to the extent they may be life-altering, well, no one knows that at the moment."
Another friend revealed the boy was left with a broken leg, saying: "It has been touch and go and they have moved from critical to seriously injured. There were surgeries during the week. [The child] has a broken leg and he asked for his cast to be painted red because he is a Manchester United supporter."
Fundraiser and social media criticism
A GoFundMe page set up for the family, by Ella's best friend Bryan Curley, has raised over £650,000. The latest update on the fundraiser, from last week, said: "I'm currently working directly with the team at GoFundMe, and all funds raised are being securely held by GoFundMe while we work together on the next steps.
"Right now, our priority is giving Ella, Niamh, Alma and those closest to them the privacy and space they need. Thank you so much for your continued kindness, generosity and support. It truly means more than we can say."
This comes after an Irish Cabinet minister said social media companies are "endangering" society by failing to remove content depicting dangerous and illegal activity.
Enterprise Minister Peter Burke said social media companies have a "very significant responsibility" to ensure that they are moderating dangerous content. He told RTÉ's This Week: "We've seen how many people have been let go from social media companies over the last number of months, and yet this content keeps appearing. This moderated content is not properly taken down on time – which is not good enough."
