Road deaths this year reach 321

A motorcyclist killed when his bike was involved in a collision with a car in Galway yesterday brings the total number of people killed on the roads this year to 321, 30 fewer deaths than in the same period last year.

The crash happened on the outskirts of Gort, at Glenbrack on the main Gort to Galway road shortly before 4pm. Gardaí said the motorcyclist died at the scene.

Two people involved in crashes last week died yesterday. The driver of a car which collided with a lorry on the Northbound carriageway of the M50 last Thursday died in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin at 4.15pm yesterday. Gardaí from Santry Garda station investigating the collision between the blue Audi car and Scania lorry are appealing for any witnesses to come forward.

Meanwhile, a 68-year-old woman who was hit by a car while out walking in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, more than a week ago has died. The incident happened at 5pm at Stafford Street, Nenagh, on December 8th. The woman was taken to Nenagh General Hospital and later transferred to Cork Regional Hospital where she was pronounced dead yesterday afternoon.

Three men died in two separate car crashes on Friday. Patrick Hartnett (41), Alder Close, Elm Park, Limerick, and Ross Mc Inerney (23), Cathedral Villas, Garryowen, also in Limerick, died when when their Toyota Corolla collided with a truck on a straight section of the N7, the main Limerick-Dublin road. The incident happened at around 5.15pm between Birdhill and Finnegan's Roundabout.

Later on Friday a 19-year-old man was killed in Co Offaly in a single vehicle crash. The man was a passenger in the car which left the road hitting a pillar at Monasteroais, Edenderry at around 11pm. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the car was seriously injured.

Police in Northern Ireland believe the body of a man discovered in a car removed from a river in Derry on Saturday may have ended up there because of a road accident. The recovery operation at the River Moyola was conducted after a member of the public came across tyre tracks leading into the water at a bridge.

Police were unable to find anything at the scene at Derrynoid Road in Draperstown but were later led to the car by another member of the public who saw it in the river. It is understood the car may have entered the river a few days earlier.

Meanwhile, the man who was killed in a fatal collision on December 9th at Rochfordbridge, Co Westmeath, has been named as Philip Brady, Ballyreehan, Ballianalee, Co Longford.