Five killed in weekend accidents

Five people have been killed in weekend accidents, three of them on the roads

Five people have been killed in weekend accidents, three of them on the roads. The road deaths bring to 317 the number of people killed on the roads this year and to 35 the number killed this month.

It is the worst October for road deaths since 2000, when 40 people died.

In Donegal, a fisherman drowned when he fell overboard from his boat, while in Dundalk, a man fell to his death from a fire escape.

In Co Cork, a family who lost a son in a forklift accident two years ago were yesterday grieving for his brother who died in a car crash in Castletownbere in the early hours of Sunday.

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Garrett Cronin (16) was a passenger in a Toyota Corolla van which crashed at Cahermore, Beara, about 6 km west of Castletownbere shortly after 2.45am.

The driver of the van Seán Crowley (17) was also killed in the single-vehicle accident.

Gardaí have named the man killed in a crash at Clonlara, Co Clare, on Saturday morning. He was Shane Browne (32), Ballycannon Heights, Meelick. He died when the truck he was driving was in collision with a sports utility vehicle.

A 38-year-old man remains in a serious condition in hospital.

In Co Donegal the fisherman who drowned on Saturday has been named as John McBride (65) from Annagry. He was reported missing at 3.30pm on Saturday when he failed to return from an overnight stay on Arranmore Island.

The emergency services were called when his boat was seen drifting off Cruit Island near Kincasslagh, but when they arrived there was no trace of the fisherman.

The Arranmore lifeboat and the Bunbeg coast guard unit, together with a Dublin-based coastguard helicopter, were involved in the search. Mr McBride's body was recovered by the Arranmore lifeboat at about 10.30pm off Cruit Island.

Gardaí in Dundalk, Co Louth, are treating as accidental the death of a local man after a fall from a fire escape.

Éamon Mulvenna (20) from Muirhevnamore is believed to have been smoking on the third-floor level of the fire escape at about 3am on Saturday when he fell to his death.

In Galway a shop assistant had a lucky escape when a car smashed into the shop close to where she was working.

Mary Coen said she could hardly believe her eyes and ears when she heard a "big bang" and saw the car crashing into the centre of Cooke's corner shop at the junction of Shantalla Road and St Mary's Road at Newcastle, Galway.

The accident happened shortly after 10 a.m. yesterday.

Dublin Port police last night confirmed that a woman had been involved in a car accident aboard an Irish Ferries vessel. The elderly woman was pinned under a sports utility vehicle as the cars were disembarking.

A Mater Hospital spokeswoman said her condition was being assessed.