Two women killed in traffic accidents

Two women were killed in traffic accidents in Co Kilkenny and Co Cork yesterday.

In Co Cork a 52-year-old woman died and two young men were injured in a two-vehicle collision on the main Cork to Bandon road, about two miles outside Bandon town, at around lunch time.

The victim was named last night as Ms Goretti Le Blanc, Skevanish, Innishannon.

She was driving from Bandon towards Innishannon when her Toyota Yaris was in collision with a Hyundai SUV.

The woman had to be cut from the car by members of Bandon and Kinsale Fire Brigade and was pronounced dead at the scene. The occupants of the SUV, two men in their mid-20s, were last night in a stable condition. Gardaí have appealed for a doctor who stopped and gave medical assistance at the crash to contact them at Bandon .

In south Co Kilkenny, a woman motorist was fatally injured on the Piltown-Fiddown bypass on the main Waterford to Carrick-on-Suir road. The 74-year-old, from Carrick-on-Suir, was the sixth woman to have been killed in accidents on the road, which has been open for less than three years.

The accident happened at midday at a crossroads known as Tower junction. Kilkenny County Council wants to ban motorists making right hand turns from the new road at the junction.

A passenger was seriously injured.

A post-mortem on the dead woman was carried out yesterday evening in the hospital.

All six people who have died on the nine-kilometre stretch of new road within the last two years and 10 months are from the locality. Gardaí said a file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Just last Monday, members of Kilkenny County Council started the consultation process to prohibit right-hand turns off the bypass at the Tower Road junction as part of a road safety plan.

Meanwhile, this holiday weekend thousands of holiday-makers are taking advantage of low air fares to leave the country, many of them for city breaks in Europe or sun holidays in the south of Spain.

Large crowds are also expected at all the major train and bus stations, particularly those serving Cork where the annual jazz festival is under way.

More than 255,000 passengers are expected to travel through Dublin Airport on 1,800 flights, a 6 per cent rise on the same period last year. Cork Airport expected about 40,000 people to travel over the weekend. Shannon expects about 37,000 passengers, a figure which was "comparable to last year".Ferry traffic on the Irish Sea is also expected to be brisk .

Iarnród Éireann, which expects more than 200,000 inter-city passengers, said it was putting in place a reservations system on its Dublin/Cork route.

Bus Éireann said it expects to carry more than 100,000 passengers. The Dublin City Marathon starts at 9 a.m. on Nassau Street on Monday and finishes on Merrion Square West. There will be road closures along the route until early afternoon.