Two people were killed when their car collided with a bus on the Tallaght bypass, Co Dublin, last night. Two bus passengers sustained minor injuries. The accident occurred near the Jobstown Inn shortly after 8.40 p.m.
The dead, a man and a woman, believed to be in their teens, were driving towards Tallaght Village when their car veered across the road and collided with an oncoming number 50 Dublin Bus bound for the City West terminus. They died at the scene.
Two female bus passengers received treatment for cuts and bruises at Tallaght hospital last night. The bus driver was treated for shock.
In Co Offaly, a woman in her 30s died when her car spun off the road at Ballykilmurry, four miles from Tullamore, at around 9.40 p.m. last night.
The accidents bring to 260 the numbers killed on the roads this year.
Meanwhile gardai have called for greater government funding for road safety campaigns.
The editorial in the latest edition of the Garda Review says that major initiatives have been aimed at combating road fatalities.
However, such efforts required further public support. It urged drivers to drive more carefully. "The time has surely come for Irish society to acknowledge that An Garda Siochana is not there to persecute motorists.
"Rather our job is to ensure that people using our roads continue to enjoy active long life by cutting down on annual death tolls that read like the fatal results of some terrible terrorist hijacking," the editorial says.