Road Death Toll Reaches 12 In One Week

After three more deaths on Ireland's roads, the death toll now stands at a morbid 12 for this week alone.

An elderly woman died on Tuesday when her car was in collision with a truck outside Sligo. Lillian Fairweather, 81, from Rosses Point, is believed to have been exiting a filling station on the N15 Bundoran Road when a lorry struck her car.

Ms Fairweather, who was the sole occupant of the car and renowned for her extensive charity work, was taken to Sligo General Hospital where she died of her injuries a short time later.

A young motorcyclist was killed and his pillion passenger suffered serious injuries in east Cork on Tuesday night when their bike was in collision with a car two miles outside Midleton shortly after 7.00pm.

And an elderly man may have suffered a heart attack at the wheel of his car as it hit the wall of a post office and rolled into a parked vehicle

The man, in his late 70s, was alone behind the wheel when he lost control on a steep hill at O'Rahilly Street in Ballina, Co Mayo, about 8pm last night.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. His body was taken to Mayo General Hospital where a post mortem examination will be carried out to determine the exact cause of death.

Last month, European statistics revealed that the over 65s in Ireland are one and a half times more likely to die on the roads than young people.

The study warned Ireland will see the total number of road deaths in 2020 rise more than 1% higher than in 2005, due to the effects of an ageing population.

Despite a slight drop in the numbers of older people's deaths on roads here since 1996, the European report ranked Ireland 21st of 30 countries in terms of road safety for those over the age of 65.

(DW)