A woman in her 30s and her 14-year-old son have died after the car they were travelling in struck a tree on Sunday night in Co Galway.
Tina Kelly and her son Joey from Doranstown died after their car hit a tree at Ballghlea, Ballygar at 9.45pm on Sunday.
Ms Kelly and her son were the only two occupants of the car and were pronounced dead at the scene. Their bodies have been taken to University Hospital Galway for a postmortem examination.
Their deaths bring to 96 the number of people killed on Irish roads so far this year.
This is nine more than the 87 who had died killed up to the same period last year.
Some 16 pedestrians, 44 drivers and 19 passengers have died in traffic fatalities so far this year, while 11 motorcyclists, five cyclists and one pillion passenger have also died.
An Garda Síochána and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) have begun a renewed focus on drink driving this summer as it emerged that road deaths are up 15 per cent so far this year compared to 2015.
There has also been a rise of 50 per cent in road deaths at weekends.
July and August are considered among the most dangerous months of the year for drink driving.
The campaign to tackle drink driving follows preliminary findings from the National Drug Related Death Index which revealed that 32 per cent of drivers who died in 2013 were drink driving.
The index also confirms the Road Safety Authority’s recent pre-crash report on alcohol which was published in June and found that alcohol was a factor in 38 per cent of all fatal crashes.
The top counties in the country for drink driving related fatalities are Cork, Galway, Dublin, Dongeal and Cavan, according to the RSA. Co Cork has also accounted for nearly a fifth of all road deaths in the country so far this year.