Pregnant woman among those injured in N20 crash

A pregnant woman was airlifted to hospital and two other women were treated for their injuries following a two-car collision on the N20 Cork-Limerick road outside Buttevant yesterday.

The accident took place at approximately 11am, 1km south of the North Cork village.

Two of the injured women were brought by ambulance to Cork University Hospital.

The Air Corps MedEvac 112 helicopter was also dispatched to the scene to bring the pregnant woman to the same hospital.

The road was closed in both directions following the collision and diversions were put in place.

The N20 route featured in a number of serious accidents this year including in the deaths of a couple from Buttevant, last April.

Con and Mary McCarthy, both in their early 70s, had died in a two-car collision as they travelled southbound on the N20, about 200m north of Mallow General Hospital.

Former county mayor Cllr John Paul O’Shea has led calls for the prioritisation of the M20 Cork-Limerick motorway project and warned there are accident blackspots on the existing route, near Blarney and Waterloo, and between Mallow and Buttevant.

In June, Michael Jewitt, aged 36, from Doneraile, died when his van collided with an ambulance at around 1.30am on the N20 near Rathduff between Cork and Mallow.

Earlier this month, a fatal single-vehicle incident claimed the life of Mandy O’Leary, aged 29, who died when her car left the N20 north of Cork City near the turn-off for Blarney.