TWO victims of a double fatal road smash had been involved in another serious accident just hours earlier.

Shiva Devine was killed and Rachel Elliott seriously injured in a smash in Bundoran, Ireland, in the earlier hours of Sunday - after both being in another one at around midnight.

It is understood the first incident happened on the Belleek-to-Garrison road in Co Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, near both women’s homes, less than four hours before the fatal 3.25am smash in Bundoran, across the border in Donegal.

In the later incident, Shiva, from Belleek, was killed, while Rachel was seriously injured.

She was air-lifted to Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital for treatment after the car carrying six crashed into a wall.

Another Fermanagh resident, Conall McAleer, was also killed while a fourth man remains in a serious condition in hospital.

Conall, in his early 20s was pronounced dead at the scene.

Meanwhile Shiva’s relatives and friends faced the sad task of preparing her home for her wake.

A native of Donegal town, she had been living in Belleek for the past three years.

One local said: “She was always in the shops and was a lovely pleasant wee girl.”

None of the four travelling in the back of the blue Peugeot 306 when it hit a wall and then a lamp post at Eastend in the seaside village was wearing a seatbelt.

The six people in the Northern Ireland-registered car had been out socialising earlier in the evening and were understood to be travelling to the village of Belleek in Co Fermanagh where some of them lived.

Gardai were initially unable to find the driver of the car involved in the fatal smash.

It is understood the man, thought to be from Northern Ireland, went to a mobile home owned by relatives in the area.

They convinced him to return to the scene and he presented himself to gardai there a short time later.

He was arrested, questioned and released without charge.

A file is now being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Meanwhile, the Road Safety Officer for Co Donegal has revealed the overloading of cars has become one of their major concerns in the fight against road carnage.

Brian O’Donnell of Donegal County Council said the local authority recently carried out research into dangerous habits by car users.

And one of the most worrying developments is large numbers of people cramming into cars late at night to get home.

He said: “Our research has shown that this is a worrying development because young people don’t care how they get home as long as they get home.

“And unfortunately our experience from that is some of them never make it home.

“They are cramming into cars just to get home and when there is an accident, we have an unfortunate outcome like this.

“Instead of picking up the phone to a friend or even to their parents to ask for a lift, they are piling into any type of car because they are desperate to get home.”