A motorcyclist was killed yesterday in a collision with an articulated lorry in Co Cork.
The 29-year-old man died when his motorbike hit the lorry at 3 p.m. on the Cahir to Mitchelstown Road, just outside Kilbehenny.
He was, according to Garda statistics, the 11th motorcyclist to die in a crash so far this year and the first fatality of the Easter bank holiday weekend. His name has not beereleased.
Gardaí have urged motorists to drive with care on the roads this weekend. Eight people died in road accidents in one weekend last month, all of them men between the ages of 18 and 30.
The road death statistics, which show a significant rise on the same period last year, have been a cause of considerable concern for the Garda, the National Safety Council and the Government.
A European Charter on Road Safety was signed by European transport ministers in Dublin this week and aims to cut fatalities in EU member-states from 40,000 to 20,000 a year by 2010.
Meanwhile, three men were injured in a multiple-vehicle crash on the Arklow by-pass at Ashwood at 2 p.m. yesterday.
Gardaí said a car and a van were parked at the side of the road when another car crashed into the van and careered into the path of an oncoming vehicle.
Three men were injured, but not seriously.