Ex-garda arrested for drink driving after man killed in crash

THE man arrested on suspicion of drink driving following a fatal car crash at the weekend was a former garda, it emerged yesterday.

A major investigation was continuing last night into both the fatal accident and an earlier hit-and-run which occurred within minutes of each other in Stepaside, Co Dublin, in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The hit-and-run occurred around 12.50am at the junction of Blackglen Road and Woodside Road, when a large, dark car - thought to be a Mercedes - collided with two women who had just left a local pub. One of the women, 17, remains in a critical condition at Beaumont Hospital, having suffered severe injury to the brain. The other woman, aged 19, who received head injuries, is in a stable condition at St Vincent's Hospital.

Around 1am, shortly after the hit-and-run and just two miles from where it took place, two Mercedes cars were involved in a collision on the Enniskerry Road which killed one of the drivers.

The dead man was named last night as Gordon Geary, 71, from Orwell Road in Rathgar. His 70-year-old wife, Joy, broke both her legs in the crash, and underwent extensive surgery on Saturday.

A former garda in his 50s was arrested at the scene of the collision on suspicion of drink driving. He was taken to Dun Laoghaire Garda Station for processing under Section 49 of the Road Traffic Act and later released. Barring further developments in the investigation, it is expected he will be issued with a court summons, as is standard in drink-driving cases.

Gardaí last night stressed, however, the drink driving arrest was just one aspect of the investigation into the two incidents.

"We're working on a number of possibilities," an investigating officer said.

A spokesman for the Garda Press Office said the fatal collision and hit-and-run "could well be" linked, but that the investigation was at too early a stage to tell. Further tests on the vehicles involved in the collision will be carried out today at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Garda Headquarters in Phoenix Park.

Last night, officers were seeking to clarify the statements of more than a dozen witnesses who had come forward in relation to both incidents. More witnesses were being sought.

Meanwhile, an elderly woman was killed yesterday after being struck by a car in Co Tipperary.

Mary Hurley, a single woman in her late 70s, was crossing the road outside her home at Grallagh, Dolla. Ms Hurley, who had worked in a chemist's shop in Nenagh for 33 years, was taken by ambulance to Nenagh Hospital where she was pronounced dead.