TWO MEN died in Cork and Clare in motoring-related incidents at the weekend.
Robert Condon (21), from Dungourney, near Midleton, was walking from Kinsale at about 3.10am yesterday when he was struck by a car at Pewterhole Cross.
The driver failed to stop. Gardaí later arrested an 18-year-old man on suspicion of drink-driving after his car was found crashed about two kilometres from the scene of the hit-and-run incident.
He was detained at Togher Garda station for questioning before being released without charge. A file will be prepared for the DPP.
Mr Condon had been returning from a night out with his friends in Kinsale when he was struck by the car.
He was taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
Mayor of Midleton Ted Murphy offered his condolences to the dead man’s parents, Bob and Breda Condon, his twin brother John, his older brother Eddie and younger sister Evelyn.
Meanwhile, a 36-year-old Limerick man died in the early hours of Saturday morning after his car entered the water at Killaloe, Co Clare.
Neil McNelis, from Ashbrook Grove on the Ennis Road in Limerick city, died in his car after he accidentally reversed into a canal.
He had been attending a wedding at a nearby hotel on the Ballina side of the river Shannon prior to the incident. It is understood that at around 5.30am he and two friends drove across to a car park on the Killaloe side of the river, a place known locally as Between the Waters. The area is between the Shannon and the canal at Royal Parade.
The passengers got out and Mr McNelis drove on to a grassy margin nearby.
When he was reversing he unwittingly backed into the canal as the stretch along which he was driving suddenly narrowed. The car flipped on to its roof and began to sink.
One of his friends jumped in to the water to try and save him as the car sank. A man living nearby was awakened by the noise and raised the alarm. One of the first gardaí to arrive at the incident also jumped in to the canal in an effort to reach the trapped man. The Killaloe unit of the Irish Coast Guard responded with both water and land-based crews.
A Coast Guard spokesman said: “On arrival, our members quickly entered the water and with the assistance of the local fire service, a steel cable was placed around the car so that it could be towed to shallower water so the casualty could be removed. We managed to get the man out of the car but tragically he had passed away.”
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene and his body removed to the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick where a postmortem is expected to be carried out this morning.
The scene was technically examined. The car was removed from the canal by crane and taken to a Garda compound for further tests.