Bus crash: Firm 'warned of dangers weeks ago'

Gardaí were today investigating a bus-stop accident that claimed five lives amid claims that the transport company was warned weeks ago of the dangers of the location of the terminus.

Three women and two men died yesterday when a double-decker bus apparently went out of control and mounted a pavement, ploughing into a queue of waiting passengers close to the Clarence Hotel, owned by the U2 rock group, on Dublin’s crowded River Liffeyside Wellington Quay.

Almost 20 others were injured in the incident, some seriously. Twelve of the injured were in a stable condition in hospital today. None of the dead has been named.

Overnight, the two buses involved in the crash were taken to Garda headquarters for a technical examination, and the Wellington Quay area was reopened to traffic.

According to reports today, a senior manager at CIÉ was warned two weeks ago that the bus terminus in question was “unsafe” and a difficult location for drivers to queue buses.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Transport Minister Seamus Brennan both pledged full inquiries after visiting the scene of the crash yesterday.

Gardaí today confirmed that one of the victims was a non-Irish foreign national.

The 33-year-old man had an address in Lucan, Co Dublin. The second man to die was a 50-year-old from Leixlip, Co Dublin.

The three women victims were aged 69, 59 and 43. Two were from Dublin and the third from Maynooth, Co Kildare.

The names of the dead have still to be disclosed.