KILDARE County Council had carried out an inspection of a stretch of the Naas dual carriage way early on Thursday morning, only hours before a fatal accident.
A spokesman said the inspection followed a tip off from gardai at about 12.30 a.m. on Thursday that there was an oil spillage at the spot. Shortly after the Garda phone call, both sides of the carriageway were inspected and found to be dry, the council said.
The inspection appears to have included the area at Castlewarden, near Kill, where the fatal three vehicle crash occurred at 7 a.m. on Thursday. One man died and two were injured when two lorries and a car collided. The accident closed one half of the carriageway and caused major traffic disruption on Thursday morning.
The council is carrying out a "comprehensive" internal investigation into its procedures, but a spokesman stressed that neither gardai nor the council's chief fire officer could yet say with certainty what had caused the crash.
A caller to The Irish Times yesterday said that Naas Garda station had been informed early on Thursday of a burst water main and resulting ice near the accident site. This information had been passed to the county council and grilling was suggested, the caller said.
But the council spokesman said that the burst water main was discovered only later on Thursday morning, after the accident. The burst main was on the verge at the top of a hill overlooking the spot where the accident occurred.
"We're trying to establish exactly how everything happened and there will be a report with the county engineer as soon as possible" the spokesman said.
Gardai have not ruled out ice as a cause of the accident, but are waiting to interview the two men who were injured before they can establish the cause of the crash. Although both are described as "comfortable" at St James's Hospital, Dublin, neither is in a condition yet to be interviewed.
There were a number of eyewitnesses to the accident, but evidence is conflicting. A motorcyclist is believed to have told gardai he came off his bike near the accident site because of ice.
