A man in his 40s last night became the eighth person to be killed on Irish roads in just over 24 hours, writes Ruadhán Mac Cormaic.
He died when the car he was driving collided with a truck on the N11 north of Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, at 5.40pm.
Some two hours earlier a two-year-old boy died after the car in which he was travelling collided with a tractor at about 3.20pm. The crash happened at Lispopple Cross on the Swords to Ashbourne road on the Dublin-Meath border.
Their deaths bring to eight the number of people killed on Irish roads since Sunday afternoon. Six others aged under 30 died in crashes in Cork, Galway, Sligo, Kerry and Antrim.
Another serious crash involving five vehicles was reported last night on the Roscommon road outside Athlone, although there were no immediate reports of fatalities.
A spokesman for the National Safety Council, Brian Farrell, said: "If there was one message that people could take from this, it's to remember that using the roads is the most dangerous thing you do every day."
A total of 50 people have now been killed on the Republic's roads since the beginning of the year, seven more than at this time last year. The unusually high death toll comes two weeks after the Government announced that further measures to improve road safety would be introduced this year.
Earlier yesterday, a man and a woman died when the car in which they were passengers hit a low-loader in Co Cork. The crash happened shortly after midnight on the Ballincollig bypass at Lisheens, Ovens. Two others were taken to Cork University Hospital and were described as "critical but stable" last night.
The victims were named yesterday as Thomas Reck (22), of Innishmore Square, Ballincollig, and Ciara Moynihan (19), of Knocknagown Place, Rylane.
At about the same time, a 28-year-old man was killed in a two-car collision at Moyleen, Loughrea, Co Galway. The victim, who had been driving one of the cars, was removed to Portiuncula Hospital for a postmortem.
Pedestrian Damien Crawley (29) was killed in Co Sligo when he was struck by a car at about 11.45pm on Sunday. The incident occurred at Carricknagat on the road between Ballisodare and Collooney.
In Co Kerry, John O'Sullivan (22), from Mountfoley, Kells, Co Kerry, also died on Sunday when he was involved in a two-car collision at 4.20pm near Cahirciveen on the main Cahirciveen to Waterville road. Three others were taken to Tralee hospital with injuries.
Meanwhile, in Co Antrim a 22-year-old man died after a crash on the A57 Templepatrick road at Ballyclare. The incident, in which the victim's car is understood to have left the road and hit a fence, occurred shortly before 11pm on Sunday.
Mr Farrell said last night that although recent Government commitments were a "big step forward", the death toll for the year so far did not augur well.
"At the moment we are killing about 33 people a month. If we are to achieve the Government's own targets we need to reduce that figure to 25 per month. But it hasn't gone too well so far."
He added that while Government action was imperative, drivers themselves should be vigilant.