Man is charged after woman's road death

A MAN in his 30s is to face criminal proceedings following an alleged hit-and-run accident on Monday night in which a woman was killed.

Mrs Paula Kelly (39), from Esker Road, Lucan, was dead on arrival at James Connolly Memorial Hospital, shortly after 9 p.m. She had been knocked down at the junction of the Lucan by-pass and Newcastle Road near her home, where she lived with her husband and three children.

A number of motorists claiming to have witnessed the accident reported it to the Garda on mobile phones, while one man followed the car for a distance before phoning a description of the vehicle to Naas Garda station.

The car was later found abandoned near Kilcock, Co Kildare. Shortly afterwards, gardai arrested a man at his home nearby. He was questioned at Lucan Garda station before being charged.

In a separate fatal road accident overnight, a woman died when struck by a car while alighting from a bus near her home in Co Laois. She was named as Mrs Margaret O'Byrne (55), of Aughoney, Timahoe.

In a third accident, a man was killed and another critically injured in a three-car collision at a dangerous bend near Balbriggan, also on Monday night. The dead man was named as Mr Michael McConnell (38), of Baltray Road, Drogheda. He was married with three children.

The driver of a second car in the accident, which happened at Delvin Bridge, Gormanston, around 9.15 p.m., was transferred from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda to Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, where he died later. He was named as Mr David Earley (40), of Victoria Village, Rathgar, Dublin.

The third driver was not seriously injured.