Three more people died on the State’s roads at the weekend after crashes in counties Dublin, Wicklow and Cork.
The latest incident occurred in south Dublin on Sunday when the driver of a van was fatally injured when the vehicle struck a tree on Lower Churchtown Road at around 6.15am. The man, aged in his 60s, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash which was sealed off for a technical examination.
The man was travelling alone at the time of the single-vehicle crash. While his death is now under investigation the inquiry is solely aimed at aiding the inquest process. Gardaí in Dundrum appealed to anyone who was in the area, especially road-users with dashcam footage, to contact them.
A man killed in Co Cork in the early hours of Sunday has been named locally as John Barry, who was in his 40s. Mr Barry, from Bridevalley View, Fairhill in Cork city, had been attending a wedding at the Midleton Park Hotel on Saturday and had left the hotel and was walking on the N25 Cork-Rosslare road at Water-Rock when he was struck by a car at around 1.30am.
The driver of the car was uninjured but was deeply traumatised by the incident and was treated for shock at the scene before the area was closed off to allow for a forensic crash investigation. Gardaí appealed to anyone who witnessed the fatal collision, or who was on the N25 eastbound in the area between 1.15am and 1.30am on Sunday, to contact Midleton Garda station.
The first of the weekend fatalities occurred on Saturday at about 6.30pm in Co Wicklow at Tombreane, Carnew. A motorcyclist, aged in his 20s, was seriously injured in the incident and was taken to Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, where he was later pronounced dead.
A technical examination of the scene was conducted by forensic collision investigators and gardaí have appealed for witnesses to come forward. Any road-users, especially those with dashcam footage, who were travelling in the Tombreane area between 6.15pm and 6.45pm are asked to contact Baltinglass Garda station.
The deaths bring to 61 the number of people killed on the State’s roads so far this year, well ahead of last year’s total at the same time. The rise in fatalities has put an added focus on road safety, especially on the role of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and the level of enforcement by the Garda as numbers in Garda roads policing units remain depleted.
The number of gardaí in dedicated roads policing units nationally have been falling – to 641 at the end of last year compared to 693 a year earlier. Last week a coalition of 28 road safety advocates – including commuter, cycling and pedestrian groups – released a statement saying they had lost confidence in the RSA due to the increase in deaths in the first months of the year.
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