Woman (72) dies in road crash in Cork

Woman was a front seat passenger in single vehicle crash near Skibbereen on Wednesday

A garda forensic crash investigator will on Thursday examine the scene of a single vehicle crash near Skibbereen which claimed the life of a 72-year-old woman Wednesday afternoon.

The woman was a front seat passenger in a car being driven by her husband when it hit a ditch on the Skibbereen to Lough Hyne road and rolled over on to its roof at about 4.30pm.

The emergency services were alerted and paramedics attended to the elderly couple but the woman - who was from the Baltimore area - was pronounced dead at the scene by a local doctor.

The woman's husband was also treated for serious but non-life threatening injuries at the scene before being taken by ambulance to Bantry General Hospital for further treatment.

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The body of the elderly woman was removed to Cork University Hospital where a postmortem is due to take place on Thursday morning.

The road remained closed overnight and the car in-situ to allow a garda forensic crash investigator to examine the scene on Thursday morning.

Gardaí have appealed to anyone who travelled the road about 4.30pm on Wednesday or witnessed the collision to contact them at Skibbereen garda station on 028- 23088.

The tragedy is the first road death in Cork in 2017 and brings to 11 the number of people who have lost their lives on Irish roads since the start of the year.

Barry Roche

Barry Roche

Barry Roche is Southern Correspondent of The Irish Times