The total number of people killed on the roads in the north and south at the weekend has risen to 11, after a man in his sixties died as a result of injuries suffered when he was struck by a car in Westport yesterday.
The Labour Party condemned the Government's total "lack of urgency" in dealing with road safety following what it said was a weekend of "carnage" on the roads. Some 147 people have died on the State's roads since the beginning of the year, 14 more than at the same period last year.
The latest deaths, almost all of them young men, occurred as it emerged the Government is considering going to the High Court to prevent potentially thousands of speeding prosecutions from being struck out due to confusion over the law.
This move follows a recent ruling in the District Court that a defendant in a speeding case should have been given a print-out of a reading from a Garda radar gun in order to be able to mount a proper defence. It is not possible to provide print-outs from the guns.
Among the other deaths at the weekend, was a man (18) who died last night after he and another man were injured in a single-car collision at Aughintemple, Co Longford, yesterday morning.
The others who died included Mr Shane O'Neill (24), a motorcyclist from New Ross, who died in an accident at Carrickbyrne, near the main New Ross to Wexford Road on Saturday.
Also on Saturday, Mr Marcus McAnenny (18) and Mr Gerard Stevenson (23), both from Tyrone, were found dead in an upturned car at Meencargagh, Ballybofey, Co Donegal. Two injured women were also in the car.
Two men died on Saturday night when a motorcycle and a bicycle collided in Carrick-on-Shannon. The cyclist was Mr Lorcan Molloy, in his twenties, from Carrick on Shannon, and the motorcyclist was named as Mr Conan Duignan, in his thirties, from Carrick-on-Shannon.
A man (18) was killed instantly yesterday morning when his car collided with a telegraph pole and then a tree near Bandon, and his car burst into flames. In another accident in Co Cork, a motorcyclist (38) died in a crash at Dunamore at 4.30 p.m.
In Northern Ireland, two people were killed and two young children were injured in a crash on the Rock Road in Lisburn, Co Antrim, shortly before 8 p.m. last night.
Labour's transport spokeswoman, Ms Roisin Shortall, condemned what she said was "the total lack of urgency in Minister Seamus Brennan's road transport policies".
"The carnage on the roads this weekend is shocking, yet sadly all too common. Road deaths for this year are up on last year's figure, whilst at the same time a court has found Garda speed guns to be unreliable and further legal challenges to their intoximeters are pending."
Ms Shortall said more lives will be lost if the Government "does not get its act together" to sort out problems that "bedevil" the penalty points system.
"Still only three offences qualify for penalty points, despite the Road Safety Strategy citing 69. Still, 2,000 drink-driving cases are in the District Court awaiting the outcome of challenges to intoximeters. Still, the road deaths figure continues to rise," she said.
Fine Gael transport spokesman, Mr Denis Naughten, said the "entire penalty points system is at risk" and that emergency legislation must be introduced to close the radar gun loophole. "A summer of carnage cannot be tolerated," he added.