‘Immense sadness’ in Limerick at death of mother in Rathkeale crash

Limerick is “devastated” by the death in a car crash of a mother understood to be travelling home from the cinema with her partner and two children.

The woman, aged in her 30s, died on the N21 near Rathkeale in Co Limerick at 4.15pm on Monday afternoon.

Fine Gael councillor Adam Teskey, who lives minutes from the scene, described the victim, who has yet to be named, as a mother, partner and daughter. “There is extreme and immense sadness this morning in Co Limerick,” he said.

“In the immediate parish and townland, people are feeling quite numb in relation to what happened. My thoughts and sincere sympathies are with family of the lady.

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“It is devastating. She was a mother, a partner, a daughter.”

Mr Teskey said the stretch of N21 where the incident happened has been the scene of a “significant loss of life down through the years”.

“It is chilling when one hears a reduction in the noise level of traffic from the road — one immediately thinks there has been another collision — it is that regular an occurrence there now,” he said. “In the last six months a lorry driver lost his life there. This stretch of road is never too far away from tragedy.”

Emergency services rushed to the scene yesterday on the Newcastlewest side of Rathkeale, at an area known locally as “the Pike”. The woman was taken to University Hospital Limerick where she was pronounced dead.

The three passengers in her car, a man in his 30s and two young children, were also removed to hospital where their condition is said to be not life-threatening. The driver of the second car, a male in his 20s, was also taken to hospital. His injures too are not life-threatening.

The road was closed for a time for technical examination by Garda forensic collision investigators. Gardaí have appealed for witnesses.