Black weekend on Ireland's roads

SIX people died over the weekend, the joint second worst death toll for the August bank holiday since 1991.

The latest victim, 25-year-old Thomas Clifford from Croagh, Co Limerick, was killed after the car he was driving was involved in a collision with a jeep. The accident happened on the main Newcastlewest Limerick road bear Castlematrix, Rathkeale, at 2.30am yesterday.

A number of other people travelling in both vehicles were injured.

A 52-year-old father-of-five was killed in a head-on collision near Swinford, Co Mayo, at 3am yesterday.

Brendan Hopkins from Knockthomas, Castlebar, was travelling to Dublin Airport with members of his family to catch an early morning holiday flight to Edinburgh when the accident happened at 3am at Ballymiles, just three miles from Swinford. Two of Mr Hopkins’ children and a young friend of the family from Sligo were injured in the crash along with the driver of the other car, a man from the Castlebar area. All three are being treated at Mayo General Hospital. Mr Hopkins, a revenue collector with Mayo County Council, is survived by his wife Ina and five children.

Meanwhile, gardaí have named the two brothers who were killed when their motorcycle collided with a car in Co Tipperary on Sunday night.

David Phelan, 24, and his brother John, 26, died in the crash near their home at Fethard.

The accident happened at 8pm a mile from Fethard on the main Clonmel road. A woman who was injured in the accident is said to be in a stable condition in hospital.

The weekend toll was the joint second worst for August Bank holidays since 1991.

It equalled the total number of deaths in 1996 but didn’t come near the 12 killed in August 2000.