Woman dies and four injured in head-on crash

A WOMAN was killed and four others were injured in a two-car head-on collision in West Cork yesterday morning.

The deceased and the injured were all travelling in one vehicle. The occupants of the second car, a family of seven, escaped relatively uninjured.

The accident occurred at Bohonagh, Rosscarbery, on the N71, at a bend in the road close to the Pike Bar between Clonakilty and Rosscarbery. It forced the closure of the main tourist route in West Cork between Rosscarbery and Clonakilty for much of the day.

Superintendent Liam Horgan said the occupants of the car, in which one woman was killed, were of Asian extraction. The deceased was travelling in an Opel Zafira with three males and one other female. The occupants were taken to Cork University Hospital where their injuries are described as serious.

The woman who died is not thought to have been the driver. All five are aged in their 20s and 30s.

The occupants of the second vehicle, an English-registered Hyundai Santa Fe jeep, included a father, mother and five young children, who were holidaying in West Cork. Injuries to the family were minor. They were taken to Mercy Hospital and later released.

Superintendent Horgan said forensic traffic accident investigators had travelled to the scene to try and establish the cause of the accident.

A number of emergency vehicles attended the scene, including two units of the Cork County Fire Service, two advanced paramedic units and three Garda units.

The injured were taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital (CUH). The cars involved in the accident were removed for examination. Supt Horgan said a number of witnesses to the accident had come forward.

“However, we would ask anyone who can help with our investigations to contact Clonakilty Garda Station,” he said. The station can be contacted at (023) 33202.

In the aftermath of yesterday’s tragedy, Cork County councillor Noel O’Donovan (FG) said one of his first acts as a newly-elected councillor had been to raise the issue of the bad bends on the stretch of road where the accident occurred at a western area roads meeting recently.

“You have the ludicrous situation where you can travel at 100km an hour into a bend that is a complete death trap,” he said.