A Kerry County Council road worker in his 50s died yesterday under the wheels of an earth-moving machine.
The accident took place near the well-known scenic location of Moll's Gap on the main Ring of Kerry tourist route outside Killarney.
The accident at Eirk, on the Killarney side of the N71 road, occurred at 8.30am, shortly after work got under way at a council road-widening scheme.
The man has been named locally as Tim Morley, a married father of two from the local Blackwater area between Kenmare and Sneem.
He was pronounced dead at the scene and his body was removed to Kerry General Hospital where a postmortem will take place.
The Health and Safety Authority and gardaí were at the scene yesterday to carry out separate investigations.
Preliminary indications were that Mr Morley was involved in moving high-visibility safety cones after rock breaking had taken place as part of the road widening operation .
He was killed instantly under the tracked wheels of the excavator.
Garda Sgt Gearóid Keating of Killarney Garda station, who was at the scene yesterday, said investigations were being carried out.
Traffic restrictions were in place yesterday and drivers to and from Kenmare and Sneem and Killarney were being asked to use alternative routes.
Kerry County Council extended their sympathy to the man's family.
This is the second accident involving heavy machinery in Co Kerry in a week.
Last Monday 41-year-old Gordon Richards, a quarry company employee originally from England and living in the Ballinskelligs area of south Kerry, died instantly when he was struck by the bucket of an excavator which was being moved on to a trailer near Caragh lake near Killorglin.
The HSA issued an alert after that accident warning about the dangers associated with the operation of excavators, particularly the use of excavators fitted with a "quick hitch" device.
That warning followed "a number of fatal and serious accidents" in the construction industry in recent months when excavator buckets became detached and fell on to workers, the HSA said.