Four young men among five killed on roads over weekend

FOUR young men under 30, including two in their teens, were among the five people killed on the country’s roads over the weekend.

The latest deaths — two in the early hours of yesterday — brought to 274 the number of people killed on the roads this year.

Just before 2am yesterday, a 22-year-old man was killed when the car in which he was a passenger overturned and collided with an embankment at Forenaughts Little in Co Kildare. His body was taken to Naas General Hospital for a postmortem examination.

Less than two hours later, a young man in his late teens was struck by a car at Crowenstown in Co Westmeath. He was named locally as Stiofan Mellett, Athboy, Co Meath. Gardaí are investigating the possibility he may have been lying on the road when he was hit.

The scene was preserved for technical examination and Mullingar Garda Station has asked anyone who travelled on the Athboy to Delvin road between 3am and 4am to contact them on 044 9348915.

Three others, including a priest, died in accidents over the weekend. In addition, a man in his 50s who was seriously injured in an accident in Clontarf on October 23 died in hospital on Sunday.

Any person who may have witnessed this collision last Tuesday is asked to contact Clontarf gardaí on 01-666-4800.

Despite the carnage and higher death toll this October bank holiday compared to last year when just two died, 2007 remains on course to be one of the best years in Ireland’s history for keeping road deaths down.

While 274 people have been killed on the roads so far this year, last year’s total at this stage was 310.

However, Brian Farrell of the Road Safety Authority said it was good that Ireland was on course for a record year, it did not detract from the tragedy faced by six families after the weekend.

“One death on our roads is one death too many and our thoughts are with the families,” he said. “Using the roads is most dangerous thing we do. The clocks have now gone back and we are entering the weekend months. We need to change our attitudes when using the roads at this time of the year. Drivers need to realise they need to light up and pedestrians need to wear high visibility material. And most importantly they must slow down.”

Mr Farrell said that while it was worrying that there were so many young men among the weekend’s crash victims it was not surprising.

“We all know at this stage that they are the group most at risk,” he said. “They account for one in five deaths even though they account for only 6% of the population.”