Roads death toll rises to seven
The weekend death toll on Ireland’s roads rose to seven after three people were killed in a head-on collision in North Tipperary early this morning.
A motorist came upon the mangled wreckage close to Drom, near Templemore, at 3.40am and alerted gardaí and emergency services.
Two men in one car, both foreign nationals, and a local woman in the other, all died in the crash which happened on a straight stretch of road in light fog.
A third foreigner was injured, as was the woman driver and a male passenger in the second car. They are in a stable condition in Nenagh General Hospital.
A local garda said: “It was a straight stretch of road and not known as an accident blackspot. But there was some fog about.”
Gardaí are waiting to contact relatives of the two non-nationals before they can release names.
The two women and one man in the second car were local and returning from a night out.
The deaths, along with four other fatalities in Wexford, Cork city and Stradbally bring the total killed on Ireland’s roads so far in 2004 to 269.
In Co Wexford, a 60-year-old woman driver and a male motorcyclist in his 30s died yesterday evening when their vehicles collided between Enniscorthy and Bunclody.
In Cork city a 22-year-old Frenchman was killed when his motorcycle crashed into a tree on the North Mall last night.
His pillion passenger was seriously injured and is in a critical condition in hospital.
And in Grange, Stradbally, a 64-year old driver died after his car was in collision with a coach at 4.20pm yesterday afternoon.
The man was taken to Portlaoise General Hospital but later transferred to Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital were he died in the early hours of this morning.
A female passenger in the car is still being treated in hospital but the driver of the coach was unhurt.
