The death of a 21-year-old man following a crash near Dundalk, Co Louth, this morning brings to eight the number of people killed on Irish roads since Friday. The male pedestrian was killed when he was struck by a truck at 12.30am on Tuesday on the N1, at Carrickarnan, Drumad, near Dundalk.
The driver of the truck, who is in his 30s, did not require medical treatment. The body of the deceased was removed from the scene and the coroner has been notified.
A section of the N1 is closed with local diversions in place while forensic collision investigators conduct a technical examination at the scene.
This death brings to eight the number of people killed on roads in the Republic over the bank holiday weekend.
In Co Limerick, a man in his 20s died when the car he was driving crashed into a wall in the early hours of Monday morning at a sharp bend outside the village of Ballyneety, about 9km outside Limerick city. He has been named locally as Luke Buckley, from Grange, Co Limerick.
It followed the deaths of two men in Co Sligo on Sunday evening, who were killed in a three-car collision on the N15 at Rathcormack at about 5.20pm. Both men were in their 70s and the driver and a passenger in one car.
Their deaths followed those of three motorcyclists over the weekend. A man in his 40s died on Saturday afternoon following a road traffic collision involving a motorcycle and a car in Clifden, Co Kilkenny. Another two male motorcyclists were injured and taken to Waterford Regional Hospital.
The male driver of the car, who was in his 30s, and his two female passengers were taken to St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny with injuries that are not life-threatening.*
Shortly before 9pm on Friday night, a 44-year-old woman died and two children were rescued after her car entered the River Lee in Cork City.
Earlier on Friday, two motorcyclists were killed in a crash on the M50 in Dublin northbound between junctions 9 and 7. They died when they were involved in a collision with a truck that afternoon. The two men, in their 50s and 60s, were pronounced dead at the scene.
It is understood the men were friends and had come from the UK to tour around Ireland by motorcycle. Gardaí are working on the theory they may have crashed into each other and were then hit by the truck.
At the end of May, 70 people had lost their lives on the Republic’s roads. This is compared with 59 deaths in the first five months of last year and in the same period in 2020. There were 44 deaths by the end of May 2019.
*This article was edited on Wednesday, June 15th, 2022.
