Gardaí are seeking witnesses to a three-car crash that left a man in critical condition in Co Meath in the early hours of Saturday.
The collision took place at Smithstown, near Julianstown in the south of the county, as vehicles travelled southbound towards Dublin.
The first crash took place at about 2.06am, gardaí said, with a vehicle crashing into the rear of another.
The cars were pulled in to the left hand side of the road, with the drivers of the vehicles, both men in their 50s, uninjured at the time.
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About 10 minutes later, a third vehicle collided with the rear of one of the vehicles and its driver, who had been standing behind it on the road, sustained serious injuries.
He was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda, where he remains in critical condition.
The driver of the third vehicle, a man in his 40s, was uninjured.
The scene, on the R132, was preserved for technical examination, with diversions in place in the area.
Gardaí are appealing for witnesses or those with relevant footage who were travelling in the area between 1.20am and 2.20am on Saturday morning to make contact.
The incident took place just hours after a man in his 30s died at the scene of a crash involving his motorcycle in Co Galway.
The single-vehicle incident took place around 11.40pm on Friday night at Carraghy on the N83 road between Claregalway and Tuam.
Gardaí and emergency services attended but the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
His body has been removed to University Hospital Galway for a postmortem and a forensic team was examining the scene on Saturday morning, with the road closed.
