A MAN in his early 20s died and a child was left critically injured after a car left the road and hit a house in Co Tipperary on Saturday night.
A further five people were injured in the crash shortly before 10pm near Rosegreen on the Cashel to Clonmel road.
Gardaí said the man who died was driving one of two cars involved in an incident that led to a car hitting a house at about 9.50pm, injuring a seven-year-old boy and two women - one in her 50s and the other in her 80s. The force caused severe structural damage to the house, where a family gathering had taken place earlier on Saturday.
Three people in a second car - a man, his son and another boy - were also taken to South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel.
Eddie Bennett, a councillor in Cashel who knew the deceased, said: "The whole community is very upset by it. Their whole lives are turned upside down.
"He used to call up the house. He was a grand quiet young fella - very obliging. He wasn't a drinker or a smoker - he lived for the cars. Himself and his father were very close.
"I went out to the accident, and when I saw the car and the engine was about 30 feet away from it, I just couldn't face it."
The driver of the second car, who is understood to be in his 30s, is involved in the local GAA club and was driving his son and another boy at the time of the crash. It was not clear whether the injured boy and two women were inside the house at the time of the crash.
Supt Tom Duggan of Cahir Garda station said the crash occurred on a straight stretch of road, but could not confirm whether both cars were travelling in the same direction.
He appealed for witnesses, or anyone who passed the site of the crash from 9pm on Saturday, to contact Cahir station on 052-45630.
The road where the crash occurred re-opened last night after being sealed off for technical examinations for the day.
