Senior garda to probe fatal car crash

A SENIOR garda officer has been appointed to investigate a fatal crash, in Co Kerry, late on Sunday night.

The car, in which a front seat passenger died, had been under observation by a garda patrol car which was travelling some distance behind it.

The deceased has been named locally as Martin McDonagh, aged 30, of Lady’s Walk, Ballyduff, Co Kerry.

All four people in the car were members of the Traveller community, with recent addresses in Kerry and the Kenmare area.

A 45-year-old man was taken into custody, yesterday, and questioned by gardaí in Tralee under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, on suspicion of dangerous driving causing death. He was later released without being charged.

A file is being prepared for the DPP, the gardaí said.

The accident occurred at 11.35pm on a sharp bend on the Kilgarvan/Killarney road, about two miles from the junction of the main Cork/Killarney road.

The green Citreon Xantia, with a Northern Ireland registration, went out of control and crossed to the incorrect side of the road. It travelled for about 30 metres along wire fence, which it levelled, before colliding with a rock and overturning. Gardaí were in the area at the time investigating reports of a car being driven dangerously and were attempting to bring the car to a stop, according to the garda press office.

A woman passenger injured in the crash is in a stable condition at Cork University Hospital.

Children’s toys were still in the back of the wrecked car, which lay on its roof, as gardaí forensically examined the scene at Dereenacullig, Kilgarvan, yesterday.

A pool of oil was on the road beside the car which had been coming from the Kilgarvan direction.

Supt Tom Duggan, of Kanturk, Co Cork, has been appointed by Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy to investigate the crash.

Mr McDonagh’s death brings to 20 the number of people of killed in traffic accidents in Kerry, this year.

His four-year-old nephew, Bernie McDonagh, was killed when the car in which he was a passenger overturned on the Ballybunion to Ballyduff road, on July 30 last.