Sister of road victim appeals to motorists

The sister of a mother of one who was killed in Tuesday's pile-up on the M7 has pleaded with motorists to slow down and called for a system to be put in place to deal with bad weather on motorways.

Kate Moyles (24), from Lumville, Co Kildare, died from massive head injuries she sustained when her Volkswagen Polo ran into the back of a fire engine which was speeding towards the initial crash.

Ms Moyles had just left her daughter Ella (5) to school and was on her way to work in the Sallins Medical Centre when she became caught up in the biggest pile-up in the history of the State.

Evelyn Moyles (29) said Kate had been her only sibling and the death had devastated her family.

"Kate was absolutely beautiful. She was stunning. We want people to see her photograph because we want to show that our girl was taken from us in such tragic circumstances.

"We were sitting there last weekend looking at the Donegal accidents thinking about those families and this weekend it's our family. We just want people to slow down and think about what they are doing.

"We want to raise awareness to stop the speeding and try and put some national system in place that if there are things like fog or bad weather, that there is a system in place to deal with it.

"It's madness to think that there are no lights on that road which is a motorway and we're putting all this money into infrastructure and there is no system in place for this or for accidents every weekend."

Four people remain in hospital following Tuesday's pile-up, three at Naas General Hospital and one in Tallaght. They are all described as being in a "comfortable" condition.

Gardaí have set up an incident room and are now appealing for witnesses to the series of crashes that started when a truck went into the back of a car transporter near the Newhall Junction at just before 9am on Tuesday.

At least 16 other collisions followed on both the M7 and M9 motorways northbound as a result of motorists having to slow down rapidly in dense fog, and 60 vehicles were damaged as a result of the pile-up

Poor visibility caused by foggy conditions may have been a factor also when five vehicles were involved in a crash on the N3 near Navan yesterday morning.

Several people were slightly injured when two lorries and three cars collided on the N3 near Navan at Garlow Cross. The crash was caused when an overtaking car clipped another vehicle and collided with oncoming traffic on the southern side of the town.

Two other people have died as a result of road traffic collisions in recent days - a man (26) in Co Leitrim on Tuesday and a 23-year-old Offaly man in Banagher, Co Offaly, on Saturday.