Eight killed on Irish roads over weekend

Eight people died on Irish roads over the weekend with four killed in a single incident in Co Fermanagh

Eight people died on Irish roads over the weekend with four killed in a single incident in Co Fermanagh. Police in the North last night released the 19-year-old male driver of the car following a crash at Lisnaskea, Co Fermanagh, in the early hours of yesterday morning. John Downes reports.

The man who was driving the car was questioned by police last night but later released on police bail pending further inquiries.

A spokeswoman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) also confirmed that the sixth passenger in the car, who escaped along with the driver from the wreckage of the Honda Civic in which two teenage girls and two men in their 20s were killed, is a 19-year-old male.

The four who died have been named as Anita Swift (16), Magheravelly Road, Newtownbutler; Danica O'Rourke (17), The Point, Attybaron, Lisnaskea; Peter Leonard (21), Carrickmacusker, Lisnaskea, and Jonathan McDonald (21), Aghagay Park, Newtownbutler.

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The PSNI spokeswoman confirmed the weekend death toll brings to 65 this year the number of deaths from road traffic incidents in Northern Ireland.

Provisional figures for road deaths in the Republic also reveal that following this weekend, 203 people have died on roads since the start of the year.

The other people to lose their lives on Irish roads this weekend were: Justin Golden, a 38-year-old motorcyclist who was killed when two motorbikes collided at Windgap, Dungarvan, Co Waterford, on Saturday afternoon; a 26-year-old male pedestrian who died when he was struck by a car at Moat, Balla, Co Mayo, at 1.40am on Sunday morning; a male driver in his 40s who died on the Nephin Road in Cabra, Dublin, on Saturday, and a male motorcyclist who died in Castlewellan, Co Down, after his motorbike was in collision with a car at 4.30pm yesterday.