Kildare, Wicklow crashes claim two lives

Two people were killed on the roads in Kildare and Wicklow at the weekend.

Two people were killed on the roads in Kildare and Wicklow at the weekend.

The deaths of a teenage girl and a man in his early 20s on Saturday bring to 188 the number of people killed on the roads in the Republic this year.

Yesterday evening, three people were seriously injured in a collision between a car and a motorbike. The accident occurred at 7.15pm at Dalystown, Mullingar, according to local gardaí.

On Saturday, a teenager was fatally injured on the Naas to Kilcullen road in Co Kildare when the car in which she was a passenger collided with a van. The driver of the car, a man in his early twenties, was seriously injured. The driver of the van and his passenger received minor injuries in the collision at Two Mile House, at about 2pm on Saturday.

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They were all removed to Naas General Hospital and the road was closed until late evening.

Gardaí have appealed for witnesses and are asking anyone with information to contact Naas Garda station at 045-897333.

Earlier on Saturday, a man in his 20s was killed when two cars collided at the Ballinameesda bends on the N11 between The Beehive and The Tap pubs in Co Wicklow at about 8.30am.

Colin Gannon, Fr Redmond Park, Arklow, was the driver of the vehicle. Three passengers were uninjured.

The driver of the other car, who was alone, was taken to St Vincent's hospital, where her injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. The body of the dead man was removed to Loughlinstown hospital.

It happened about a kilometre from where road improvement works were carried out recently north of The Tap to prevent such motoring fatalities, which have claimed more than 30 lives over the last few decades.

The same stretch claimed two lives in April, while in 1998, five people on a school bus were killed.

Senator Michael Enright was one of four victims killed in another accident in 2003.

Arklow mayor Cllr Sylvester Bourke called on the Government to complete the dual-carriageway between the Arklow and Rathnew bypasses. Work on the Arklow-Rathnew dual-carriageway is not due to get under way until 2011 or 2012.

"We have been lobbying for years to have this dual-carriageway provided," Mr Bourke said.

A Garda source confirmed that the number of deaths on the Arklow to Rathnew stretch of road was above average.

While 188 people have died on the Republic's roads in 205 crashes, it is still 15 fewer fatalities compared with last year. In the same period in 2006, there were 244 crashes and 203 people died.

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran is Parliamentary Correspondent of The Irish Times