Tributes pour in to victim of accident

Tributes pour in to victim of accident

13 June 2012

TRIBUTES have been paid to the 26 year-old Portaferry woman who died following Sunday’s traffic accident outside Kircubbin.

Danielle McKenna was walking on the Rowreagh Road when she was struck

at around 3am on Sunday.

A man who was walking alongside her escaped uninjured.

Portaferry councillor Joe Boyle, a neighbour of the young mother, said Ms. McKenna was well known in the local community.

“I would have seen Danielle on a regular basis,” he said. “She has an eight year-old boy and I would have seen her out walking backwards and forwards and she would have stopped to say hello.”

Describing her as a “normal, friendly young woman”, councillor Boyle said the tragedy was being felt very deeply among the family and wider family circle.

“It will be particularly deeply felt in the Ballygalget and Ballycran areas,” he said. “When it comes to the Ards Peninsula you find so many people are related in some way and the community are very much pulling together following Danielle’s death.”

Councillor Boyle said he did not want to speculate on any reasons for the crash at this stage.

Alliance Strangford MLA Kieran McCarthy, who lives in Kircubbin, said the village was in shock at the death.

“The circumstances of the accident are unknown but the location of the accident is a fairly straight road with the exception of some hidden dips,” he said. “However the end result is catastrophic for the entire family. I offer the community’s sympathy and sorrow to the family on this devastating loss of a young life.”

Strangford MP, Jim Shannon, said the young mother’s death had united the local area in grief.

“The whole country is at this moment uplifting them in thought and prayer,” he said. “The tears of a family are the tears of the Ards Peninsula. We are all united in grief at this terrible tragedy.”

A 26-year-old man arrested in connection with the crash has been released on police bail pending further inquiries. Police have appealed for anybody with information to contact them on 0845 600 8000.