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15/11/2006
'No-one to blame' for body mix-up
A High Court Judge has today said that no-one was to blame for a mix-up in which the family of a road traffic accident victim, was given the wrong body for burial.
Mr Justice Weir, concluding his review of events which led to the misidentification of two teenage girls who died during a collision in County Fermanagh in July.
Anita Swift, 16, and Danica O`Rourke, 17, were among four young people killed during a crash which happened on the Lisnaskea to Newtownbutler Road.
The driver and the front seat passenger were injured, however survived the incident.
After the Swift family had held a funeral for Anita, it emerged that they had been given the wrong body by mistake and had in fact buried Danica.
The teenager's body was exhumed, causing the Swift family to have to go through the ordeal of a second funeral.
Mr Justice Weir, said: "The initial error made in the most difficult of circumstances at this dreadful scene was then adopted and acted upon in good faith by others."
The judge made a series of recommendations to a special core group he set up to produce a "Best Practice Guide for Coroners" aimed at preventing a similar misidentification from ever happening again.
The core group includes a coroner, an inspector from the Police Service and doctor from the Department of Health.
The recommendation is that in incidents where more than one person of the same sex and in a similar age group are involved, no body should be released for burial until everyone in the category has been positively identified by reliable means.
A statement released by the O'Rourke family said: "Our family was not at any stage permitted to participate in the identification of Danica`s body and if we have been involved, the initial mix up would have been quickly resolved.
"The procedures employed by the authorities in this case were clearly insufficient."
They said they felt strongly that the bodies should not have been released from the mortuary, nor should burials have been allowed to take place, until all the deceased had been conclusively identified.
"We hope that the judge's recommendations will be fully implemented, to prevent any other family enduring such a terrible ordeal."
(EF)
Mr Justice Weir, concluding his review of events which led to the misidentification of two teenage girls who died during a collision in County Fermanagh in July.
Anita Swift, 16, and Danica O`Rourke, 17, were among four young people killed during a crash which happened on the Lisnaskea to Newtownbutler Road.
The driver and the front seat passenger were injured, however survived the incident.
After the Swift family had held a funeral for Anita, it emerged that they had been given the wrong body by mistake and had in fact buried Danica.
The teenager's body was exhumed, causing the Swift family to have to go through the ordeal of a second funeral.
Mr Justice Weir, said: "The initial error made in the most difficult of circumstances at this dreadful scene was then adopted and acted upon in good faith by others."
The judge made a series of recommendations to a special core group he set up to produce a "Best Practice Guide for Coroners" aimed at preventing a similar misidentification from ever happening again.
The core group includes a coroner, an inspector from the Police Service and doctor from the Department of Health.
The recommendation is that in incidents where more than one person of the same sex and in a similar age group are involved, no body should be released for burial until everyone in the category has been positively identified by reliable means.
A statement released by the O'Rourke family said: "Our family was not at any stage permitted to participate in the identification of Danica`s body and if we have been involved, the initial mix up would have been quickly resolved.
"The procedures employed by the authorities in this case were clearly insufficient."
They said they felt strongly that the bodies should not have been released from the mortuary, nor should burials have been allowed to take place, until all the deceased had been conclusively identified.
"We hope that the judge's recommendations will be fully implemented, to prevent any other family enduring such a terrible ordeal."
(EF)
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