Frankie McCann, whose daughter Kiea was killed in a crash alongside her friend Dlava Mohammed on the way to their Debs in 2023, tells @MiriamOCal about arriving to the scene of the crash.

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THE PARENTS OF Kiea McCann, one of two teenage girls killed in a collision on their way to a debs in Co Monaghan in 2023, have said that there is “no moving on” from her death. 

Kiea (17) and her best friend Dlava Mohammed (16) were killed when the car they were travelling in struck a tree at Legnakelly in Clones, Co Monaghan on 31 July 2023. 

The driver of the car, Anthony McGinn, was handed a seven-year jail sentence last week after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the deaths of Kiea and Dlava. 

According to an extensive forensic report, McGinn’s average speed between Clones and the scene of the collision near the New Line junction was calculated to 138.85 km/h. The speed limit on that road is 80 km/h. 

In an interview with RTÉ’s Prime Time this evening, Frankie and Teresa McCann described Kiea and Dlava as “inseparable” and “more sisters than friends”.

Recounting the crash, Frankie said that McGinn was “a so-called friend of mine” and had offered to drive the girls to their debs. He said he told them he would get them there safe and they trusted him. 

He said that when he and Teresa arrived at the scene of the crash, he started doing chest compressions on Kiea before the emergency services arrived, when he helped to cut the doors off the car. 

“Then it was just a rush job jumping from my own daughter to Dlava. You were just trying basically to save one to get to the other. It wasn’t that you had a choice to do it. It was something you had to do,” he said. 

When it became clear that there was nothing more they could do, Frankie said he gave his daughter the last rites with rosary beads “because there was no one else there to do it”. 

“You kind of hope if there is something after life, they would know that you were with them. They would know that they were loved, because my daughter knew she was loved,” he said. 

Kiea McCann (left) and Dlava Mohammed (right) died in the crash in Monaghan on their way to a debs ball. RIP.ie RIP.ie

“You remember the day she was born, when you’re the first to hold her. Then you’re the last to hold her going out of the world. That’s what you live with. That’s the consequences of people not taking care of what they’re doing.”

‘They begged for their lives’

Before sentence was handed down, Monaghan Circuit Criminal Court heard that Dlava’s sister Avin, who suffered life-changing injuries in the incident, asked McGinn to slow down multiple times before the collision. 

“They begged for their lives. He knew that. He heard them asking for him to slow down. He could have slow down at any time on that road. Any part of that road, he could have slowed down. He chose not to,” Teresa said. 

They said they did not believe the seven-year sentence that McGinn received was fair. 

“In my eyes and in her mother’s eyes, what we seen on the night, if the DPP or the judge or somebody had to go through all that trauma that we went through and seen it, it would be a different story,” Frankie said. 

“Why not turn around and give five years for my daughter, give five years for Dlava, two years for Avin? That’s 12 years that a judge could have gave, consecutive years.

He’s getting three meals a day. He’s getting visits. If me and her want to visit our daughter, it’s a graveyard. Speak to a stone.

Teresa said: “People think that because [McGinn] got a seven year sentence, you can move on. There is no moving on. There is no move on. Not for me anyway, definitely not for me.”

Frankie said Kiea wanted to be a social care worker.

“She wanted to go on to college, finish it so she could help people. What is she now? She’s just another road victim. She’s somebody that’ll never be known as Kiea.”

‘Reset of road safety’

Speaking after the interview, Minister of State at the Department of Transport Sean Canney offered his sincere condolences to the McCann family.

He said a “country-wide reset of road safety” was needed, echoing comments Garda Commissioner Drew Harris made earlier this month. 

Canney said he intended to act on legislation to reduce speed limits on Irish roads. 

“We need to make sure that we have active engagement with young people before they take up driving, to educate them on how important it is to show respect to the car that they will have control,” he said.

“I think it’s also important that we look at how we’re actually carrying out detections and our monitoring of speed on our roads.”

Asked about the Department of Transport’s plans to reform the Road Safety Authority, Canney said he had engaged with the RSA.

“Hopefully we’ll be bringing in some proposals in the coming months to make sure that we have a more efficient and a more effective Road Safety Authority,” he said. 

He also said he believed it is realistic that fatalities on Irish roads will be dramatically reduced by 2030 and eliminated by 2050.