Death toll rises after 'tragic crash'

The mens' Renault Megane hit a garden wall

The deaths of two men in a crash in County Down on Sunday morning bring the number of people killed on Northern Ireland's roads this year to 168.

David Hanna, 32, from Sandymount in Annalong and Stephen Shanley, 38, from Ava Drive in the Ormeau area of Belfast, died when the Renault Megane car they were travelling in hit a wall near Rostrevor.

It is understood no other vehicle was involved in the accident which happened on the Killowen Road at about 0300 GMT.

The impact was so great that debris scattered as far as the doorway of a nearby house.

Eyewitness Teresa White said the crash was a horrific scene

Theresa White, who lives there said she tried to help but that there was nothing anyone could do.

"It was a horrific scene. There was a man lying on the road and another man trapped in the car," she said.

"I knew when I first saw it that it was fatal. Eeven this morning looking now at the state of the wall and the lawn it just resembles the DoE's television driving advert."

RUC Inspector Kajic Rudowitz said the crash was a "terrible tragedy" for the mens' families so close to Christmas.

The crash brings the number of people killed to 168

"It is so difficult even for the police at this time of the year to have to go to families and parents to inform them of such dreadful news - your son, your daughter, your grandchild or your father or mother has just met his death on the roads," he said.

The police have repeated their message to all those using the roads to take extra care to try to prevent further loss of life.

Nine people have died on the province's roads this week alone.

The total number of people killed on the roads so far this year is already 27 more than for the whole of last year.

Those campaigning to try to cut the number of accidents believe hard-hitting advertising campaigns are necessary.

Georgina Greer from the Road Action Safety Council said: "There has been some criticism that they are too shocking, but I would support anything at all that would get the message home, that a car is lethal, and that if a car hits you, you have very little chance of surviving."