FOUR MEN have died and another has been injured when a Southern-registered car and a lorry collided just outside Newry, Co Down, yesterday.
The crash occurred just before 5pm near a railway bridge on the Belfast-Dublin line three miles on the Tandragee side of the city.
The injured man has been taken to Daisy Hill hospital in Newry, and there was no information on his condition last night. The driver of the lorry is not thought to be seriously injured.
The PSNI believe the men in the car were foreign nationals, possibly Portuguese.
A 47-year-old motorcyclist has also died following a crash at the weekend. His motorcycle was in a collision with a van on Saturday.
He was seriously injured in the accident on Barony Road near Omagh, and died from his injuries yesterday. His family has requested that his name be withheld. Five people were injured, two of them seriously, in other incidents.
In Derry, a 42-year-old woman was seriously hurt when she was hit by a lorry on Victoria Road in the city at around 10.30pm on Saturday.
In Fermanagh, two men and two women were hurt in a collision on Glengesh Road, Tempo, just before 9am yesterday. No other vehicle was involved.
A 26-year-old woman is said to be in a serious condition. Two 25-year-old men and a 24-year-old woman were also injured, but their condition is not serious.
Seventy-eight people have lost their lives on Northern roads so far this year, five more than this time last year, heightening safety concerns after a prolonged downturn in the rate of road fatalities.
Local politicians expressed their alarm at the loss of life.
Ulster Unionist deputy leader Danny Kennedy, who is an Assembly member for the area, said the Newry accident happened at what he called “an extremely dangerous bend” which was notorious in the locality.
Referring to yesterday’s heavy rain, he said: “Whether road conditions played a part, we don’t yet know.”
Another local Assembly member, the SDLP’s Dominic Bradley, added: “I extend my deepest sympathy to the family and friends of the men who lost their lives and I hope that the other man injured in this accident makes a full and speedy recovery.
“People in the area are shocked about this horrific and tragic accident.”