One man was killed and seven bus passengers were in hospital last night after a car and a Bus Éireann coach were involved in a head-on collision at around 5.15pm on the main Dublin-Wexford road near Arklow.
The bus was travelling south on the N11, about 1km past the Arklow bypass when it collided with a white Volkswagen Polo travelling north.
Motorists following behind broke windows on the bus to help free some of the 25 passengers who were trapped on board the bus, which was equipped with seatbelts.
Gardaí at the scene last night said the car appeared to have been pushed back along the road for a distance of about 30m before it and the bus ended up in a ditch.
The dead man, whose name has not yet been released, was driving alone and was pronounced dead at the scene at 7.30pm.
Units of the Co Wexford and Co Wicklow fire services were at the scene and screens were erected around the car. Gardaí had to call out an 80-tonne crane to lift the bus, which had come to rest on top of the car.
Traffic diversions were immediately put in place as long tailbacks of weekend traffic built up, particularly traffic heading south coming off the Arklow bypass.
The death of the man brought to three the number of people killed on Irish roads over the weekend.
Two men died in separate motorcycle accidents in Dublin and Wicklow, while 19-year-old Caroline McGlanaghey also lost her life in a crash at Glenties in Co Donegal, bringing the number of people killed on the roads this year to 181.