Gardaí believe an American couple who were seriously injured in a three car crash in Co Cork may have been following sat nav directions when they veered into oncoming traffic.
The couple, aged in their 50s, were travelling on the N20 from Mallow towards Cork in a rented Nissan Micra when they turned across the outbound lane at the Waterloo turnoff and collided with a van travelling towards Mallow.
A third car, coming from the Waterloo direction and waiting to exit on to the N20 then hit the Micra. The crash happened at about 11am on Monday.
The American man suffered serious injuries and was taken to Cork University Hospital where it is understood his injuries are serious but not life threatening. The woman suffered less serious injuries and the other two drivers were treated for shock.
American tourists
According to a Garda source, the collision was similar to a crash on September 11th last when two American tourists were killed while making a manoeuvre to turn off at Waterloo and head for Blarney to visit Blarney Castle.
Tourists, James Baker(62) from Columbia City, Indiana and Peggy Sue Adams (59) from Delphos, Ohio were both fatally injured when their hired Skoda Octavia being driven by Ms Adams's husband, Jack (67) was involved in a collision with a truck at the Waterloo Junction on the main N20 near Blarney.
Both Mr Baker, who was a front seat passenger in the car, and Ms Adams, who was sitting behind him in the rear seat, were fatally injured when the left side of the car took the brunt of the impact and Mr Adams and Mr Baker's wife, Deborah (60) received serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Their Skoda Octavia was travelling from Mallow towards Cork and was turning right across the lane of traffic coming from Cork to descend the Kiln Hill towards Waterloo to head for Blarney when it was in collision with the truck which was driving north from Cork towards Mallow.
Gardaí believe on that occasion Mr Adams was following a sat nav which directed him to turn off at Waterloo for Blarney and they hope to be given permission by doctors over the coming days to speak to the couple injured on Monday to see if they were similarly using a sat nav.
Junction
The turn off at Waterloo is the first junction for Blarney that drivers meet coming from Mallow but just under four kilometres closer to Cork there is a turnoff with an underpass where motorists heading for Blarney can safely cross under the motorway to access the tourist village.
The road was closed following yesterday’s crash until around 5pm and diversions were put in place to allow a garda forensic crash investigator examine the scene while all three vehicles were also examined by a garda PSV inspector to see if they were in good mechanical order before the crash.
Gardaí have appealed to anyone who may have witnessed the collision or have any information that can assist them in their investigation into the crash to contact either Blarney Garda Station on 021- 4516290 or Gurranebraher Garda Station on 021-4946200.
