Motorists criticise fatal crash diversions
Road collision experts sealed off a section of the N8 Cork to Dublin road near Glanmire, where 19-year-old hairdresser Sian Roberts, from Kilbarry, Fermoy, Co Cork, lost her life in an horrific three-car smash just after 6.30pm on Monday.
The diversions were in place until about 2pm yesterday. Several early morning motorists complained of delays of up to an hour.
But Superintendent Pat Sheahan, who is leading the investigation, defended the diversions.
“It was dark when the accident happened and we had to wait for daylight to allow for a proper investigation,” he said.
The northbound section of the N8, north of the Jack Lynch Tunnel and about 100 metres on the city side of the Caherlag bridge, was sealed off after the accident.
“We regret any convenience caused and the co-operation of motorists is greatly appreciation,” said Supt Sheahan.
“But a young woman lost her life and we have to examine the scene properly.”
Ms Roberts was on her way home from work in the city when the accident happened.
They believe her silver Ford Ka was in the hard shoulder and possibly stationary moments before impact.
Her car was in collision with a Nissan Almera, which was being driven in the same direction, by a man in his 70s.
Ms Roberts died in the impact. A third car, also travelling in the same direction, suffered minor damage.
The elderly man was rushed to the South Infirmary hospital in Cork with non life-threatening injuries.
Gardaí spoke to him yesterday but are waiting for his condition to improve before speaking to him again.
Supt Sheahan said they had ruled out the possibility that a brick was thrown at her car from the Caherlag bridge.
However, a motorist who stopped to help after the accident had to use a brick to smash the door windows to get access to the car after the doors jammed.
A postmortem was carried out on Ms Roberts’s body at Cork University Hospital.
Her distraught parents, one of whom works in Waterford and the other in Cork, were trying to inform all her friends yesterday.
Ms Roberts became the second teenager to die on Irish roads since Sunday.
Her death brought to 17 the number of people killed on the roads so far this year — up four on the same period last year.
* Supt Sheahan appealed for witnesses or for anyone who stopped to help to contact the incident room on: 021-4908530.
