Four killed in weekend road traffic accidents

Gardaí were last night investigating the deaths of two motorcyclists in separate accidents over the weekend.

A 30-year-old man and a woman in her eighties, also died in road traffic accidents this weekend, bringing to 26 the number killed on Irish roads this year.

A motorcyclist in his forties died last night after he was involved in a crash with a car at Mohonagh, Skibbereen.

The male driver of the car was uninjured.

Gardaí in Cavan are investigating a head-on collision between two motorbikes in which one man died.

A 31-year-old was fatally injured in a motorbike crash at Creighan, between Ballinagh and Cavan town, at around 8.25pm on Saturday.

The motorcyclist was rushed to Cavan General Hospital but was pronounced dead shortly after. He was named as Michael O’Reilly from Killsallagh, Ballinagh, Co Cavan.

The other motorcyclist, a man in his late 20s, is receiving treatment in hospital for minor injuries.

Gardaí are investigating whether the two motorcyclists had been in the area together before the crash.

Creighan locals have claimed there was a lot of motorbike activity in the area on Saturday evening.

The scene of the accident remained closed yesterday for a technical examination by Garda collision experts.

Elsewhere, it emerged the 30-year-old man killed in a single vehicle crash in Co Clare on Friday night was the driver in a collision in 2002 in which a man died.

Michael Maloney Jr, from Glencanane Beg, Kildysart, Co Clare, died in hospital hours after his borrowed car crashed on the Ennis-Tulla road shortly before 8pm.

His passenger and cousin Wayne Fitzgerald, 23, from Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare, remains in a critical condition in the Mid-Western General Hospital in Limerick.

Mr Maloney was the driver of a vehicle that crashed into a ditch near Kildysart in Feb 2002, killing a male passenger. Mr Maloney was charged with dangerous driving but was acquitted in court.

In Co Roscommon, an 82-year-old woman was killed when the car she was driving crashed on the Ballymote road a short distance outside Boyle at 10.20am.