Motorcyclist killed in collision with van in Co Limerick

A motorcyclist has been killed in crash with a van on the N69 Coast Road at Askeaton, Co. Limerick.

The crash took place on Saturday on at about 1.30pm.

The motorcyclist, a man aged in his late 30s, was pronounced dead at the scene. His body has been removed to University Hospital Limerick. The driver of the van, a man aged in his 50s, has been taken to University Hospital Limerick to be treated for what are thought to be non-life threatening Injuries.

The road was closed late on Saturday night to allow for a technical examination by Forensic Collision Investigators with local diversions in place.

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Gardaí have asked that anyone who may have witnessed the collision or any road users who may have camera footage, to make it available to gardaí.

The death follows a sharp rise in the number of motorcyclists killed on the State’s roads in the early weeks of this year.

The man killed near Askeaton on Saturday was the eight motorcyclist to be killed since the start of the year.

Brian Farrell of the Road Safety Authority said it was “particularly worrying” that the number of people killed on the State’s roads this year was now 37, some 22 more than the similar period last year.

He said the increase includes a worrying trend for motorbikers, as the number killed increased to 22 in 2021, an increase of five deaths over 2020.

Mr Farrell said the overall numbers being killed were a cause of “extreme concern” and he pointed out “you would have to go back a long number of years to see that many motorbikers killed. The motorcycle season is usually April to September and that has not even started yet”.

Mr Farrell said the advice form the authority was for bikers to pay spacial attention to wearing protective clothing such as helmets, padded jackets and special reinforced protection for elbows, knees and other joints. Speed was a factor in many of the deaths and both bikers and drivers of four wheel vehicles should be aware of the vulnerability of bikers, Mr Farrell said.

‘Alarmed’

However Michael Noonan of the Irish Motorcycle Association, responding to questions about the numbers of bikers being killed, said putting the onus on motorcyclists’ behaviour was to miss the reality of what is happening on the roads.

He said in most cases the bikers were not responsible for the crashes. He said when a car pulls out from a side road in front of a biker “there is nothing you can do”. Mr Noonan said his organisation had done much research on the problem in conjunction with fellow European associations and the European Parliament and the findings were that professional drivers were not involved in these crashes. It was, he said, “mostly some idiot in a car”.

The road safety group Parc, founded by Susan Gray in 2006 after her husband Steve died in a road traffic collision, said it was “alarmed” by the numbers killed on the State’s roads so far this year. Parc which stands for Promoting Awareness Responsibility and Care on the roads said the issue of motorbikers was “very much a cause of concern”.

According to an analysis, by the RSA, of provisional Garda statistics from 2021, 27 per cent of drivers and passengers killed in road traffic collisions, were not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. Analysis of provisional collision data from 2017 to 2020 shows that 10 per cent of vehicle occupants seriously injured were not wearing a seat belt.

The research found that while 96 per cent of motorists say they always use a seat belt as a driver, this figure drops to 83 percent when people are travelling in the back seat of a car.