Gardaí have appealed to the public for assistance in their investigation into a single vehicle crash which claimed the life of a young mother in west Cork in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Valerie O’Donovan from Riverview Drive in Ballineen was killed when the car in which she was travelling as a front seat passenger collided with a telegraph pole at Manch on the main Bandon to Dunmanway Road at about 2.30am.
It’s understood Ms O’Donovan – the mother of an 11-year-old girl – had been socialising with a male friend, the driver of the car, in Dunmanway earlier on Saturday night and they were returning to Ballineen when the crash happened.
Ms O’Donovan was pronounced dead at the scene by a local GP. Her body was removed to Cork University Hospital for a postmortem while the driver of the car, a man in his 30s, was taken by ambulance to the hospital where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries to his shoulder.
Gardaí under Supt Eddie Mac Eoin of Bandon Garda station closed the road for several hours to allow a Garda forensic crash investigator to examine the scene, but the road was re-opened to the public at about 2pm yesterday.
Witness appeal
Gardaí have appealed to anyone who was travelling the road at the time and might have witnessed the collision or has any information that can assist them to contact them at Bandon Garda station on 023-885220.
Meanwhile, gardaí in Cork city have appealed for witnesses to a collision in which an 82-year-old female pedestrian received fatal injuries on the Melbourne Road in Bishopstown last Tuesday, December 18th.
Doreen Purcell from Melbourne Road was struck by a car near her home and taken to Cork University Hospital, where she died on Friday. Gardaí have appealed to anyone who may have seen the collision to contact them at Togher Garda station on 021 -4947120.
