Four more fatalities in one day increase road toll to 402
Friday December 28 2001
Three of the victims a middle-aged couple and a young mother from the US lost their lives in a two-car accident three miles from Cahir on the Tipperary road.
Four others were hospitalised with serious but not life-threatening injuries after the crash at Toureen.
Earlier, a young Welsh woman, who was celebrating her first Christmas with her Irish husband, died in an horrific road accident in north Cork.
The accidents brought the death toll on Irish roads so far this year to 402.
The injured in the Cahir crash include the deceased US woman's seven-month-old daughter and her sister. The woman's boyfriend and his nine-year-old sister are also being treated at Cashel general hospital for their injuries.
They were all travelling back to the boyfriend's home near Clogheen, Co Tipperary when the accident occurred.
The driver and passenger of the other car were both killed, with the woman dying at the scene and her partner pronounced dead on arrival at Cashel General Hospital.
It is understood they were living in the Waterford area. The dead man is a native of Co Louth while the woman is from Waterford.
Conditions on the country road were wet at the time of the accident.
Gardai are still trying to establish the cause of the accident and while the cars were travelling in opposite directions, it is understood that the collision was not head-on.
Gardai said last night that the names of the dead people would not be released until all relatives had been notified.
Five ambulances were despatched to the scene as well as a fire brigade unit from Cahir, members of which spent over half an hour trying to free the occupants of both cars.
The deceased and injured were all anointed at the scene by Fr Conn Moloney, from the Bansha area where the accident occurred.
Speaking last night Fr Moloney said that the tragedy is magnified by the fact that it occurred at a time when we celebrate family togetherness.
And in the early hours of yesterday morning, Welsh woman Emma Spears (26) was knocked down and killed as she walked home after a St Stephen's Day outing just yards from her rented home in Co Cork. Ms Spears who had only got married last July died after being hit by a passing car as she walked home along the main Fermoy to Mallow road one mile outside the village of Ballyhooly in north Cork.
She had been celebrating her first Christmas in Ireland with her husband in a house rented on the outskirts of the Cork village.
The motorist involved was unhurt but deeply shocked.
- Eugene Hogan and Ralph Riegel
