A teenage girl died in a freak accident in Co Donegal yesterday when she was struck by a wheel that came off a lorry.
She was walking with her family on the Derry to Letterkenny road near Newtowncunningham when the wheel hit her and her brother and sister. She was named as Denise Doran (15), of Colehill, Newtowncunningham.
Her brother Brian (5) was in a critical condition last night in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin and sister Stacey (8) was said to be stable in Letterkenny General Hospital. Two younger children and their parents, Noreen and Peter, were treated for shock.
The accident happened at 4.20 p.m. when a lorry carrying concrete blocks lost a rear wheel on the way to Letterkenny.
Gardai and an ambulance were on the scene within minutes and the road was sealed off.
In Co Cork an elderly couple died early yesterday morning when their car collided with a truck between Buttevant and Mallow. It appears the car driver decided to turn back and pulled out into the path of the oncoming truck.
Mr Michael O'Sullivan (79), and his wife Nora (80), were dead on arrival at Mallow Hospital. The truck driver was uninjured.
Meanwhile, gardai in Midleton, Co Cork, have named the man who was found dead at the foot of cliffs in Ballycotton yesterday afternoon. He was Mr Eddie Durkin, of Clash Road, Carrigrohane, Cork.
Gardai in east Cork had revealed that the dead man had distinctive tattoos on each hand in the hope that someone might know who he was.
Yesterday unnamed persons came forward to reveal his identity. A post mortem examination was carried out on the body and the gardai are inquiring into the circumstances surrounding his death.
Mr Durkin's death brought to five the number of people who died in Cork since last Friday.
Two men were killed in road accidents - both of them fathers of four young children. One of the accidents occurred in the Ballinhassig area of Cork and the other in Ballyhooley, near Fermoy. The Garda authorities said this was one of the worst death tolls in such a short span in recent years.