Member's statement: A5: Anniversary of Road Deaths

Member's statement by Mr Daniel McCrossan on 23 April 2024.

MLA: Mr Daniel McCrossan
Party at the time: Social Democratic and Labour Party
Date: 23 April 2024
Type: Member's statement
Business: Members' Statements
Heading: A5: Anniversary of Road Deaths
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4485026

Text

I pay tribute to the memories of three victims who died on the A5 — three members of the one family. The first-year anniversary of their deaths will be this week, on Saturday 27 April. On that day a year ago, travelling home from the funeral of a family member in England, they were travelling along the Aughnacloy section of the A5. The McSorley and McKane family members were in a minibus when, unfortunately, a tragic and terrible accident occurred. Of those on the bus, three lost their lives. One was Julia McSorley, and I am thinking on her husband Patsy, her son Patsy, her daughter Maria, her son Shane, her son Colin and her daughter Julie. Dan McKane lost his life, and I am thinking on his daughters, Cara and Ruth. His sister Christine McKane also lost her life in that accident, and I am thinking on Nicole, Gary and Danny. I know that the House will join me today in keeping them in our prayers as they face what will be an extremely difficult week. That accident was one of the most horrific to have occurred on the road. It has hit hard in the community of Newtownstewart and in Strabane, and it has impacted deeply and very harshly on the wider family. Three members of the family survived that terrible crash, but I know that they have struggled all year to comprehend what happened. There are young people and children at the heart of this and a family who are suffering tremendous pain. The road continues to put people's lives at risk daily, and there is no day on which I do not hear of a serious accident. Unfortunately, the McKane family faced the worst possible consequences of that on a difficult section of the road. Fifty people have died on that road, and hundreds, if not thousands, have been injured. Unfortunately, unless the road upgrade is delivered, more will face terrible consequences. We need a decision, and we need one soon. Today and this week, given that a year has almost passed, I would like the McKane and McSorley family to know that they are in our prayers and that the Members of the House are thinking on them and on all families who have been affected by tremendous loss on the A5 road.

388 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.

Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.

This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.

Jev’s structured answers

Probability that each statement is true of this text (0 = no, 1 = yes). A criterion counts as met at 0.60 or above.
Question	Probability	Met?
Identity framing	0.02	No
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.01	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.02	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.02	No
Controversy escalation	0.02	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.50	No
Overall judgement	0.03	At or below not-flagging threshold

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing (chosen)	1.00
Reports or questions it	0.00
Criticises or condemns it	0.00
Adopts it	0.00

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
No identity-related subject	0.88
Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism	0.04
Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials	0.03
Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues	0.02
Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice)	0.01

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:03 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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