Tragic family killed in horror Galway crash were on way home from house viewing ahead of 'new life'

The family killed in a horror Galway crash last week were returning home from a property viewing in Carlow.

Karzan Sabah, 36, his wife Shahen Qasm, 31, and their eight-month-old baby Lena were killed when a car travelling the wrong side of the road hit them head-on.

The young family had been in Carlow town just hours before they were killed last Thursday evening.

Karzan had secured a job there to lecture in agriculture and had met with a landlord as he and Shahen viewed a property.

But on their way back to their home in Glenanail Drive, Riverside, Galway, when tragedy struck.

Hiwa Wahab, co-founder of Kurdish Art Nergez Group Ireland, said they family were set to start a “new life”.

Meanwhile, relatives of the family are due to arrive in Ireland to identify their bodies.

A spokesman for the Kurdish Irish Society told how the family were “devastated” and hoped to have the bodies repatriated to Karzan and Shahen’s native Iraq.

He said two family members were due to land here on Monday and travel to Galway to formally ID the bodies.

The spokesman added: “Karzan’s brother and family just want to get the bodies home to be buried. They are devastated.”

The Kurdish Irish Society has also been inundated with thousands of emails and messages of condolence after the tragedy.

Mr Wahab added that Karzan’s brother became increasingly concerned about them after reading about the crash on the organisation’s social media page.

Mr Wahab said: “He was concerned about the news. I believe someone called him and told him Karzan had been missing for nearly 20 hours.

“His phone was switched off, so they asked us to do some research about this.

“We took a few details from them, and we started to make phone calls to the gardai and to the hospital and our branch in Galway.

“Three hours later, unfortunately, we had received the bad news and that’s when we shared it with the family.”

The other car was being driven by Polish man Jonasz Adam Lach.

Gardai are probing if Lach – whose address was Fisherman’s Wharf in Portumna, Co Galway – either drove into them deliberately or was high on drugs.

He had serious mental health issues and was also before the courts for driving offences.

Another person injured in a third car was taken to hospital with what were described as non-life threatening injuries.