A woman (67) who died after being struck by a lorry in Macroom, Co Cork, on Friday has been named locally as Patricia Daly from Coppeen near Enniskeane.
Ms Daly was crossing Main Street from near the Briery Gap Theatre towards the Castle Hotel when the collision occurred at about 12.50pm.
The main Cork-Killarney road, the N22, runs through the centre of Macroon. It is understood that traffic had come to a halt, and Ms Daly was crossing the road when it began to move off and she was struck by an oil tanker.
Gardaí have renewed their appeal to the public for information about the collision that occurred just over an hour before the new bypass of the town was due to open to traffic.
Ms Daly, a widow and mother, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her body was later removed to Cork University Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
Gardaí put diversions in place to allow an examination of the scene, while the truck involved in the incident was also removed for a mechanical examination.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin had officially opened an 8km section of the Macroom bypass just 50 minutes before the collision, and the new road was due to open to traffic at 2.00pm.
However, gardaí opened the new bypass at about 1.15pm to keep all traffic away from the scene.
It’s understood that the driver of the lorry was uninjured.
Gardaí are appealing for any witnesses to this collision to come forward. Any road users who may have camera footage (including dashcam) and were travelling on the Main Street between 12.30pm and 1pm on Friday are asked to make this footage available to gardaí.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact Macroom Garda station on 026 20590, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda station.
Friday’s collision follows the death of mother-of-three Mary Buckley who was fatally injured when struck by a lorry while crossing the N22 near Chapel Hill on July 9th, 2009.
The death of Ms Buckley, who was in her 60s and originally from Kilnamartyra but living in Ballyvourney, led to increased calls to speed up plans to develop a bypass in order to remove heavy vehicular traffic from the town centre.
