Friends to be buried side by side

Workmen cleared the road as police examined the scene

The mother of one of two young women killed in a road accident in County Antrim has described them both as bubbly, loving and caring.

Christina O'Boyle said her daughter Lisa McFerran, 25, and her best friend Claire Wakelam, 23, will be buried side by side as they were rarely apart.

The women were struck by a car on the Ballybogey Road, Portrush, on Saturday.

Christina said they were going home after seeing a comedian who was due to perform at Claire's wedding next year.

Claire was due to marry Lisa's brother William.

Christina said: "In life they were best friends, they were never apart.

"The two girls were very close. Claire is just like Lisa; she is bubbly and bouncy. Both of them died together, so we are bringing them back together now. They are going side by side, in the same grave.

She was beautiful, a great mother to her two children. Christina O'Boyle Mother

"They were modelling their dresses in the house, the way girls do. The dresses are all hanging here in the wardrobe."

The women lived a few yards from each other in Carfinton Park, Rasharkin.

They had just stepped out of a car when the accident happened.

Lisa had two daughters, Lauren, three, and seven-year-old Shannon, who had already bought their mother a little chain for Christmas.

Paying tribute to her daughter, Christina said: "She was beautiful. A great mother to her two children.

"All she cared about, was her two children and me and William her father. And if she wasn't taking care of one she was taking care of the other.

"She was very, very caring. She just had got into her own new house, got things sorted out."

Investigation call

Earlier this year, Claire and William had lost their four-day-old daughter due to illness.

"Claire couldn't wait for William to see her in her wedding dress, so she is getting buried in her wedding dress," said Christina.

Ulster Unionist assembly member Norman Hillis said there had been five recent deaths on that stretch of road.

"There will have to be a big investigation between the Roads Service and the police and any (other) agency to see what can we do," he said.

"This sort of carnage can't go on."

The deaths bring the total of people killed on Northern Ireland's road this year to 120.