Three men die in road accidents

DESPITE a highly publicised road safety campaign, there was a sad start to the new year for three families across the country as three young people lost their lives in road accidents in the first few hours of 2005.

Three young men were killed in two separate accidents in counties Leitrim and Kildare in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

Adrian McSherry and his friend Aidan Leonard, both aged 17, died when the van in which they were travelling hit a tree near Glenfarne, Co Leitrim, on the Sligo to Enniskillen road.

Gardaí are investigating the incident which occurred at 5am.

There was no other vehicle involved in the collision and both youths were removed to Manorhamilton hospital. They were both from the Glenfarne area.

Meanwhile, a 26-year-old man was killed when his car hit a tree at Garrisker, Co Kildare, on the Broadford to Edenderry Road at 3am.

The man, who was alone in the car at the time of the accident, was taken to Naas general hospital.

Gardaí yesterday named him as Anthony Hopkins from Broadford in Kildare.

Last year, 379 people were killed on the nation’s roads.

Despite the introduction of a wide-ranging penalty points system, the continual carnage on Irish roads remains an escalating problem for gardaí and the Government.

A poll of the nation’s “Highs and Lows of 2004”, the results of which were presented by Joe Duffy on RTÉ over the weekend, rated the failure of penalty points to reduce road deaths among the top five lows of the year.