BY MICHAEL BRESLIN

Tributes were paid this week to guests at a wedding reception in the Manor House Hotel, Killadeas, some of them doctors, who rushed from their meal to tend to a fatally injured man and others hurt in a road traffic accident at an entrance to the hotel on Monday night.

The accident happened on the main Enniskillen-Kesh road shortly before 7 o'clock on Monday evening. It involved five vehicles.

The driver of one of five vehicles involved, a Latvian national who was living in Castlederg, died at the scene.

The deceased was 29-year-old Aleksandrs Orlovs who was employed at the nearby Balcas factory.

He and a fellow Latvian national, Janis Ozolf had just completed their four-day weekend shift at the plant and were returning to Castlederg, via Kesh, in a blue Peugeot 306 which was being driven by the deceased.

At the time, a oncoming car travelling from the Kesh direction, had stopped at the entrance to Conference Centre at the Manor House Hotel intending to turn in. Three other vehicles, including a white van, pulled up behind it. It is understood there was a car behind the van.

It appears that a collision took place between the Peugeot car and one of those oncoming vehicles.

A Police spokesman said two other people were injured, the passenger in the Peugeot 306 and the driver of a Volkswagen Caddy van.

Yesterday, a spokeswoman for the Western Health Trust reported that one of the injured men was in a stable condition in Altnagelvin Hospital and the other man had been detained in the Erne hospital. She did not have the authority to distinguish who was who.

Shocked drivers and occupants who had escaped injury immediately rushed to help the dying man and those injured. They were joined by medical guests and others attending a wedding reception in the Manor House Hotel. They were alerted to the crash by the impact of the vehicles. An ambulance crew later joined them.

Paramedics and doctors worked non-stop in an effort to resuscitate the driver of the Peugeot, but failed. He died at the scene. The other two injured casualties were checked and treated by paramedics and the doctors before being ferried by ambulance to hospital.

A spokesman for Balcas told the 'Herald' that the deceased, Mr Orlovs was a maintenance fitter who had been employed by the firm since February last year.

"He was on the week-end shift which lasted from Friday through to Monday and was leaving for home after finishing the shift. He was an excellent employee who integrated very well with his work colleagues. He will be a big loss. We offer our sympathy to his family. That's the one phone call you wouldn't want to get in Latvia."

This recent death brings to nine the number of those killed in road traffic collisions in the county, or from Fermanagh who died beyond the county boundary so far this year. The six killed on Fermanagh roads included a young apprentice plumber from Letterkenny. Three who died outside the county were natives of Fermanagh. Two of the nine were pedestrians, one in Main Street, Lisnaskea on 10th March, the other in Main Street, Bundoran on 18th March. Two of those killed died in separate road traffic collisions on the same day.

The SDLP Assemblyman for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Tommy Gallagher was among those who expressed regret at the death of Mr Orlovs.

"He was a Latvian man who was working locally, who came here to work and provide a better life for himself and, possibly his family. A road death is never an easy burden to get over but when it happens such a distance from home, then it will be especially hard for his family."

He extended his best wishes for a full recovery to those still recovering in hospital and at home who were injured.

Mr Gallagher recalled that, last year, two foreign nationals were killed not far from the scene of this tragedy as a result of a motorcycle crash

"The death toll is far too high', he said, " and we should be supporting the efforts of those working on road safety."