Seven people died at the weekend as a result of road crashes including a six-year-old boy who was injured in a collision in Co Armagh on Thursday. Marie O'Halloranand Dan Keenanreport.
Their deaths bring to 440 the number of fatalities this year on roads in Ireland. In the Republic there have been 333 fatalities to date, while in the North the death toll is 107.
In Co Meath a 60-year-old pedestrian was killed yesterday at 7.10pm when he was struck by both a car and bus at Garlow cross. Just under an hour earlier a man in his 30s died after he was struck by a van on the Limerick side of Murroe village.
In Co Louth, a 29-year-old man was killed yesterday just before 8am when the van he was driving crashed at Whiterath, Drumiskin. There was no other vehicle involved and he was alone in the van.
A 23-year-old Co Down woman died after a crash on Saturday evening in Omeath, Co Louth. The woman, later named as Áine Clarke, from Ferryhill Road, Newry, was fatally injured following a collision with another car at Cornamucklagh, Omeath. The couple in the second car were taken to Daisy Hill hospital in Newry, where their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
In Co Armagh a 22-year-old man died when the Nissan four-wheel-drive vehicle he was driving left the Glassdrumman Road in Crossmaglen at 10.20am yesterday.
Earlier, another man died when his car left the Tromra Road in Cushendall, Co Antrim, at about 6am. A second man who was in the vehicle was being treated in hospital for serious injuries. The victims had not been named by police last night.
These fatalities followed the death on Saturday of Jerome Mone (6) who died in the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children following a crash on the Red Lion Road in Loughgall, Co Armagh on Thursday.
His family said they had decided to donate his organs to help other critically ill children.
In a statement issued from their home at Ballygossan road in Armagh city, the dead boy's parents, Angela and Sean, said their youngest child had died "leaving the gift of hope and life" for other children in need of transplant surgery.
"At this time of such sadness this gift of hope is no doubt the ultimate Christmas gift," the statement said. "In his too-short life, Jerome brought an abundance of laughter and joy to all who knew him." His mother described her little boy as a "sometimes timid but always loving and giving child".
In both the North and Republic the number of road fatalities has fallen compared with last year. In the Republic a total of 368 people died on the roads in 2006, 35 more than the death toll so far this year.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said 129 people died in traffic-related incidents in 2005 while 121 died on the roads in 2006. In 2005, 15 of the 129 killed were aged 16 or under. The following year this figure dropped to seven. Jerome Mone's death brings the total number of children killed on the North's roads this year so far to four. He was also the only child car passenger to die to date this year. The remaining three child fatalities were pedestrians.
December remains one of the worst months for road fatalities.