Three killed in motorway crash
Three people died and two were seriously injured in a head-on crash between two vehicles on a motorway section of the main route between Dublin and Belfast today.
The accident, involving a car and a van, happened near Dunleer, 40 miles north of Dublin in Co Louth, on a north-bound section of the road.
The dead were two women and a man, all of whom were in a car heading south that was believed to have crossed the central reservation of the motorway and struck the oncoming van. Two men in the van were seriously injured.
The body of one of the women was thrown out of the car by the impact and was found on the roadside. All of the dead and injured were thought to live locally.
The road, one of Ireland’s busiest, as it carries the bulk of the country’s north-south traffic, was sealed off after the incident, and diversions caused long delays.
Following the crash, Fine Gael called on the Government to provide more funding for the National Roads Authority to provide more substantial protective crash barriers on the central sections of motorways to ensure accidents like today’s were not repeated.
Dennis Naughten, the party’s transport spokesman, said: “The roads authority has dramatically curtailed funding for the upgrading of dangerous sections of our national routes this year.
“This issue must be immediately addressed before further lives are lost in similar incidents.
“The speed limit on the motorway is 70mph. There is no way central reservations of grass verges and shrubs will stop an out of control car travelling at or near the maximum speed limit, from crossing over into oncoming traffic and causing a horrific crash, like the one that occurred today.
“Tragically this is not the only fatal case of a vehicle crossing from one side of a motorway to another. Proper crash barriers that would contain any crash on one side of the motorway are necessary, and they should be put in place by the National Roads Authority immediately.”
