The body of a driver was found early yesterday at the wheel of a vehicle which left the road at Shanaknock, near Millstreet, Co Cork.
The car was spotted upside-down in a ditch off the Killarney-Millstreet road by a passing motorist at 9 a.m. The driver, Mr Kevin Joe Hickey (24), from Shanaknock, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Garda∅ said he was alone in the vehicle and they believed he came off the road the previous night.
Meanwhile, garda∅ in Co Galway investigating a fatal Saturday-morning hit-and- run incident have released a 25-year-old man.
Mr Dermot Moloney from Craughwell, Co Galway (26) was killed after a car struck him while he was walking on the main Dublin-Galway road at Moyvilla, Oranmore.
He was pronounced dead at University Hospital Galway. Garda∅ said they subsequently arrested a 25-year- old man who was released on Saturday night. A file is being prepared for the DPP.
Garda∅ yesterday also released the name of a pedestrian who was killed in Co Cork on Friday night. Ms Gemma Savage (19) from Upper East Hill, Cobh, was hit by a car at about 10 p.m. on the N25 at Courtstown, between Little Island and Carrigtohill. She died later in Cork University Hospital.
The weekend deaths brings to 396 the total number of people killed on the roads in the Republic this year. A total of 415 people died in road fatalities last year.