Oil spill may have led to fatal crash

Oil spill may have led to fatal crash


Anton McNulty

THE stretch of road on which a 22-year-old Achill man died following a head-on collision with a lorry in Kilkenny last week is regarded as a notorious accident blackspot, and the possibility of an oil slick being the cause of the accident is being investigated.
The accident occurred last Tuesday evening at 4.35pm along the N76 on the main Callan to Kilkenny road at Parkmore, leading to the deaths Brian O’Keeffe from Cloughmore, Achill and the driver Paul Martin (30) from Ashbourne, Co Meath.
The news of Brian’s death sent shockwaves through Achill, with hundreds attending the removal from his home to Derreens church last Thursday and again at the funeral Mass on the following afternoon. The youngest in a family of nine, Brian had been working in Dublin since graduating as an engineer from NUI Galway in 2007. Achill curate, Fr Ronnie O’Boyle, said the whole community had been devastated by the news and described Brian as a popular and outgoing person.
The driving conditions at the time of the accident were  described as treacherous with heavy wind and rain, and it is believed that an oil spillage caused the car to go out of control, and collide with the lorry.
A Garda spokesperson in Kilkenny told The Mayo News that it had been reported that an oil spillage at the section of the N76 had occurred prior to the accident, and it was something they were looking into as the cause of the accident. The men were travelling towards Kilkenny when they collided with an on-coming lorry and initial investigations suggest that the car went out of control before crashing into the lorry.
Emergency services rushed to the scene but the two men died at the scene and their remains were brought to St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny. The driver of the lorry was also transferred to hospital where he was treated for shock and minor injuries.
Unfortunately, this was not the first fatality on this stretch of road and there has been a number of serious accidents on the road in a recent years. The Garda spokesperson explained that there are a series of bends in the area and the local authority taken measures to put down a special surface to give extra grip.
It has been reported locally that Government delays in providing €12.5 million needed to straighten the 3.5km stretch of road forced Kilkenny County Council to reduce the speed limit from 100KPH to 55KPH.
Brian’s burial took place following two o’clock Mass on Friday afternoon in Glencoe cemetery. He is survived by his father John, mother Mary-Jo and four brothers and four sisters.