Nine people have been killed in four road crashes on both sides of the Border during the bank holiday weekend.
Four Polish nationals died instantly after their car collided with a lorry in Co Cork on Friday night. They were named last night as Sylwester Szezyrow (25), Radoslaw Nowak (23), Rafal Corski (28) and Andrzej Wojciechowski (27), who had been living in Ballincollig, Co Cork, and died at Goggin's Hill near Ballinhassig after 10.20pm. The lorry driver was brought to Cork University Hospital, but he was not gravely injured.
In Co Meath, a 26-year-old man was killed on Saturday morning when his car hit two horses. The incident happened at Garlow Cross, Navan, at about 5.50am. Gardaí named the driver as Martin Coen, Lacken, Kilmihil, Co Clare. The two horses were killed.
A 19-year-old woman died in hospital yesterday following a road crash in Co Tyrone. Janeen Black, Aughafad Road, Pomeroy, was brought to hospital with head injuries after she was in a two-car collision on the A5 Ballygawley to Aughnacloy road, but died later.
A man who was travelling in a Volkswagen Golf with her was also treated, but his injuries are not thought to be life threatening. The driver of the second car, a Fiat Stilo, escaped serious injury.
Three teenagers were killed in Castlereagh, on the outskirts of east Belfast early on Saturday morning. Nineteen-year-old twin brothers and their friend, aged 18, all died in the single vehicle incident on the Ballygowan Road. All three victims are believed to be from east Belfast.
Gardaí have named the 20-year-old victim of a crash in Straffan, Co Kildare, last week as Stephen O'Brien of Loughbollard, Clane, Co Kildare. He was killed in a two-car collision at Castledillon, Straffan, at about 10.20pm last Thursday.
The weekend deaths bring to 122 the number of people killed on the Republic's roads since the beginning of the year. The equivalent figure in Northern Ireland is 39.
Despite the high death toll at the weekend, the chief executive-designate of the Road Safety Authority, Noel Brett, insisted that an annual reduction of 150 in the number of road deaths is "entirely achievable".
"In Ireland we kill 11 people per 100,000 while in best-practice countries such as Britain, Norway and Sweden that figure is six per 100,000," Mr Brett said. By bringing the State's total to six per 100,000, some 150 lives could be saved. "If we don't, that's 150 people who are alive this Easter who won't be here next Easter."
Mr Brett, who addressed the annual conference of the Irish Road Haulage Association in Sligo at the weekend, said there was evidence that young men aged between 17 and 24 were a high-risk group, and he suggested new advertising campaigns would focus on the role of young women in influencing their male peers.
Arguing that it was unacceptable for 400,000 people to be driving on provisional licences and an estimated 130,000 waiting for tests, Mr Brett said it was hoped to cut the average waiting time from 40 to six weeks.
He also emphasised the importance of education to improving safety, appealing to parents to invest in driving lessons for their children, and criticising others for their lax view towards the wearing of seat belts. "Research shows that seven out of 10 children who travel to school in the front of cars wear seat belts but only six out of 10 sitting in the back do," said Mr Brett. "It is frightening when you realise that adults are driving these vehicles."
He concluded: "If a plane came down and 399 people lost their lives, we would all sit up and take notice, but last year we killed 399 people on the roads and we are almost immune to it."