Eight killed on roads over Bank Holiday weekend
The latest road fatality came when a man died at 4pm yesterday from serious injuries he suffered in an accident at Kilbannon, Tuam, Co Galway, on Saturday morning.
In a separate accident the body of a man was found trapped under a car beside the Bord na Móna railway line at Killinthomas, Rathangan, in Co Kildare.
Gardaí believe the single vehicle accident happened in the early hours of yesterday morning, but it was 8am before the man’s body was discovered. The deceased was 63-years-old and from the area.
Gardaí said they were satisfied that the man was the driver of the vehicle, which had slid down an embankment after the crash.
Meanwhile, gardaí in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, are investigating a collision between a saloon car and a Honda 750 motorcycle that killed a 41-year-old motorcyclist.
The accident happened 2 kilometres outside Belturbet on the N87 Belturbet to Ballyconnell Road at approximately 8.20pm on Sunday night.
The man, named later as Sean Clial of Doogarry, Killeshandra in Co Cavan, was taken to Cavan General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The spate of road accidents came as the new head of the Road Safety Authority, Gay Byrne, said he felt helpless and frustrated about this year’s rising death toll.
Speaking on Morning Ireland, the veteran broadcaster again appealed to motorists to be extra vigilant and to reduce their speed by at least 5km.
“One can only have a sense of frustration and anger and helplessness that such deaths continue on the road,” he said.
“Unfortunately, all the warnings and all the dreadful, harrowing television commercials and radio commercials and photographs in the newspapers down through the last few years, apparently there are a great number of people who just don’t read newspapers, don’t watch television, don’t listen to radio and don’t pay them any heed and so it goes on, it’s appalling.”
The recent fatalities mean that 125 people have now died on the roads so far this year. A further five people died north of the border in road traffic accidents over the weekend.
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