A man died and six other people, including a child, were injured in a three-car collision on a straight stretch of the N22 in Killarney yesterday morning. The man, a Romanian national, was a passenger in a car which went on fire after the crash.
One of the injured, also a Romanian national, is in a critical condition in Cork University Hospital, suffering from severe burns.
The incident occurred on the Killarney bypass route between the Ballyspillane roundabout on the Cork side of Killarney and the Ballydribbeen roundabout on the western or Tralee side of the town.
The scene of the collision was within metres of the town's fire station.
The dead man was a passenger in an Opel Astra containing four other adult males.
The car had been moving west along the bypass from the direction of Cork when it went into the hard shoulder, in what firefighter sources believe was part of an attempted U-turn, and drove into the path of a local woman and her four-year-old boy coming from the Tralee side of the bypass.
The Astra rebounded from this collision and a third car driven by a local businessman coming from the eastern Cork direction then collided with it. The Astra burst into flames.
Five ambulances attended the scene, along with three units of the fire service.
One of the adult males in the Astra was removed to Cork University Hospital suffering from severe burns, while the other three men were removed to Kerry General Hospital.
The mother and boy were also removed to Kerry General, where their condition was stable.
The death brings to 10 the number of people who have died on Kerry roads so far this year.
Two weeks ago, three men died in a head-on collision on the N21 outside Castleisland.
Killarney Garda Insp Barry O'Rourke, who is heading the investigation into the crash, said the county was going through a terribly bad period in relation to road deaths.
He appealed to the public to concentrate when driving.
For several years, Kerry had been below the national average when it came to road deaths, but last year 22 people lost their lives on the county's roads.