Gardai name two traffic accident victims

Gardaí have named two of the three men who died in separate road accidents in the last two days.

They have appealed for witnesses to a fourth accident which happened last March.

On Thursday night James O'Meara (59) from Goresbridge, Co Kilkenny, was fatally injured in a road accident in Carlow.

The van he was driving was in a collision with another van on the N9 road near Leighlinbridge.

Mr O'Meara was taken to Waterford Regional Hospital where a postmortem was carried out.

Gardaí are appealing for witnesses to contact them at Carlow 05991-36620 or at Bagenalstown 05997-21212.

Also on Thursday, in Co Offaly, Paddy Beggleton (72) was killed when his bicycle was struck by a lorry not far from his home at Raheen, Clara.

The accident happened at 8.30pm on the Clara-Moate road, and Mr Beggleton was declared dead at the scene.

In a third accident, on Friday morning, an 18-year-old man was killed in Co Cork when the car he was driving went into a ditch.

The accident happened at Knocknacurragh, Boherbue, near Mallow at 8.15am and no other vehicles were involved.

And gardaí have appealed for witnesses to an accident which happened in Galway last March.

Two young men were killed when the car they were travelling in was in a crash on the N18 on March 4th.

The two-car accident happened shortly after 9pm at Ballynamantan, about a mile outside Gort on the main Galway-Gort road.

Gardaí are hoping to contact a man and a woman whom they think may have witnessed the crash.

A Garda spokesman said the couple are believed to be from the Cork area and may have been staying in a hotel in Gort.

They have called on them to contact them at 091-636400 with any information they might have.

Meanwhile, gardaí investigating a bus crash that claimed the lives of five schoolgirls in Co Meath have said they have completed their investigations and have sent a file to the Director Of Public Prosecutions.

The accident happened last May at Moorestown in Navan when a Bus Éireann school bus crashed and turned on its side near temporary traffic lights at a roadworks site.

The bus was bringing home more than 50 students from secondary schools in Navan.

Five of the students were killed and several others were injured.

Three investigations were undertaken into the circumstances surrounding the crash by the Health and Safety Authority, the Garda and Bus Éireann. There were no seatbelts fitted to the bus at the time of the accident.