There have been calls for surveillance cameras to be installed on motorway flyovers in the midlands after a series of incidents in which concrete blocks and other missiles were thrown on to passing cars from flyovers along the new M4 motorway.
Vandals dropped concrete blocks, iron bars and stones on to the cars travelling on a newly-opened section of the motorway between Kinnegad, Co Westmeath, and Kilcock, Co Kildare. There have been at least seven such incidents this week.
A number of drivers - including a man whose wife and young child were in the car at the time - had to swerve to avoid the missiles. Gardaí at Mullingar received complaints at about 3am yesterday but said the perpetrators were gone when they arrived at the scene at Kinnegad.
"It was an extremely dangerous act that could have resulted in serious injury or even death," said a Garda spokesman. "Concrete blocks thrown from that height are very dangerous weapons, and it is just lucky that no one was struck."
Local Fianna Fáil TD Donie Cassidy has called on the National Roads Authority to install surveillance cameras on the flyovers to "restore the confidence" of drivers travelling on the route.
Meanwhile, in Co Derry, a woman died after the Peugeot car in which she was a passenger collided with another car on the main Limavady to Dungiven road at around 10.30am yesterday. Two others were taken to hospital, but their injuries are not life-threatening.
Driving conditions will improve across the country today, with temperatures set to rise and snowfall in Ulster and north Leinster to turn to rain by mid-morning.
Temperatures will become noticeably milder today, with an average of between five and 10 degrees across the country. This compares with highs of two to six degrees yesterday, when icy conditions led gardaí to issue traffic warnings in several places.
On the Military Road near Glencree in Co Wicklow, four cars skidded off the road and conditions remained dangerous throughout the county yesterday. AA Roadwatch also issued warnings over parts of counties Meath and Wexford.
A spokesman for Met Éireann said heavy rain will spread from the Atlantic this morning and may bring some snowfall but these showers will be isolated and brief. "There will be fairly hard frost in Ulster and Leinster tomorrow," said the spokesman. "In Connacht and Munster, there will be wind and rain, and this will spread eastwards during the morning. "You'll see some snowfall in Ulster and parts of Leinster, but that will turn to rain very quickly."