Gardaí await road crash relatives to identify victims

GARDAÍ investigating last Friday’s road crash which killed three Romanian men in Co Tipperary are waiting for relatives of the victims to formally identify the bodies.

A spokesperson for Gardaí in Cashel said yesterday they are satisfied who the three men are but cannot make a formal identification until relatives arrive from Romania.

Postmortem examinations, meanwhile, cannot be carried out until the identification process is complete. The bodies are in a morgue at Waterford Regional Hospital.

The deceased reportedly lived in the Dublin area. They had not lived in Ireland long and did not appear to have any relatives in this country.

Attempts are continuing between Gardaí and the Romanian embassy in Dublin to get in contact with relatives.

Gardaí are still trying to establish the cause of the crash, which happened at about 10.50pm on Friday, 3km from the centre of Cashel.

The three Romanian men were travelling south along the old N8 Dublin-Cork road when their blue Volkswagen Passat collided head-on with a rigid truck which was travelling north.

The Passat ended up underneath the truck and a crane had to be brought to the scene on Saturday to separate the vehicles before the bodies were cut out at about 12.30pm.

Attempts to confirm the identities of the dead men have proven difficult as no relatives initially came forward.

It is understood the driver of the rigid truck told Gardaí the Volkswagen travelled onto its wrong side of the road just before colliding with his vehicle.

The truck driver is from Templemore in Co Tipperary and was brought to South Tipperary General Hospital for treatment for minor injuries after the crash. While his injuries were not life-threatening, he was said to be deeply shocked.

Anyone who may have witnessed the crash or has any information on the movements of the victims on Friday has been asked to contact the Gardaí in Cashel on 062-75840 or any garda station.