Postmortem due on elderly couple who died in Co Cork crash

Gardaí have appealed for witnesses to a two-car collision on the main Cork-Limerick road on Tuesday evening which claimed the lives of an elderly couple from Co Cork.

The couple named locally as Con (76) and Mary McCarthy (76) from Velvetstown in Buttevant were fatally injured when their Toyota Avensis was in collision with another car near Mallow on the N20.

It is understood the McCarthys were driving towards Mallow shortly after 5pm when their vehicle collided with a Lexus heading towards Limerick just north of the entrance to Mallow General Hospital.

Both Mr and Ms McCarthy were pronounced dead at the scene and their bodies were removed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where postmortems will be carried out on Wednesday.

The driver of the other car involved in the collision, a woman in her late 20s, was uninjured in the crash but was badly traumatised and was treated by paramedics for shock at the scene.

Former Buttevant county councillor, Tom Sheahan, said the local community is still in shock as he paid tribute to Mr and Ms McCarthy, who are survived by their sons, John, David and Conor.

"Con was a grand fellow - he was a staunch Fine Gael man and very involved in the IFA and when he got involved in anything, he did so whole heartedly, there were no half measures," he said.

“He was farming here in Buttevant but he was originally from west Cork and was a great GAA man as well - passionate about Cork football and he was a regular at all the matches.

“Mary was a lovely lady and they were a great couple - if you had a nation of people like them, we would be going somewhere, it really is very sad for their family and for everyone here in Buttevant,” he said.

Gardaí have closed off the main road and diversions have been put in place south of Mallow General Hospital and at Newtwopothouse to allow a Garda forensic crash investigator examine the scene.

The cars were due to be removed from the scene last night to a secure area to allow a Garda PSV inspector carry out a mechanical examination to establish if they were in proper working order.

Supt Pat Lehane appealed to anyone travelling the road near Mallow General Hospital yesterday evening who may have seen the collision to contact Mallow Garda Station on 022-31450.

The deaths bring to nine the number of people killed in road traffic collisions on Cork roads this year and follows the death of a 73-year-old pedestrian in Bantry town on Saturday afternoon.

Anne Murphy from Seaview Terrace in Castletownbere was fatally injured when she was struck by a truck on Wolfe Tone Square in the centre of Bantry just after midday on Saturday.