At approximately 7:00 am this morning, following very heavy rainfall, an accident has occurred on the motorway, roughly 1km from the Urlingford, Co. Kilkenny exit on the M8.
A large number of emergency service personnel, including Gardaí, Fire & Ambulance services have promptly arrived at the scene.
Motorists travelling from Thurles in the direction of Dublin are advised to divert via Two-Mile-Borris unto the old R639 road, before rejoining the motorway outside of Urlingford.
Motorists are also advised to drive with extreme caution today given forecasted heavy rainfall and poor visibility and otherwise poor driving conditions.
Traffic flow is only now beginning to move slowly forward.
Parents of students attending schools in Thurles, and travelling from the south, northwards on the N62, please take note.
Tipperary County Council are advising the public that they will operate temporary traffic management measures on the N62 Slievenamon Road, Thurles, commencing from tomorrow Monday September 25th possibly concluding next month on Monday October 23rd. Same disruption is to facilitate works on a section of the footpath currently existing between Lidl Supermarket entrance and the River Suir walkway.
Pictures show section of the N62 on Slievenamon Road Thurles and the widened entrance to the Thurles River Suir once pedestrian walkway only. Pictures: G. Willoughby.
These works are part of a further realignment of the road already partially constructed and then stalled some 11 months ago, and will include the removal and relocation of an ESB pole and a portion of existing footpath, while also installing a 100 metre cycle path from the present existing traffic lights on the southbound lane of the N62.
While the removal and relocation of the historic lime stone half circle walls at the existing River Suir walkway entrance have been welcomed, the failure to replace the existing turnstile (swinging gates) has caused great anger locally. We are informed that the National Transport Authority has introduced new non-compliant access control points, affecting all newly modified Active Travel Routes and require a minimum of an 1800mm clear opening, on all public entrances. This enlarged opening now permits not just walkers unto this pathway, but also horses pulling buggies, which are then driven into the river Suir, together with motorcycles and adult electric scooters, all now regular visitors using this former pedestrian only area.
Word of warning: If you are using this walkway in the company of small children, please do take care, as unsupervised children can easily run out onto the roadway, into the ever fast moving traffic operating on this section of the N62.
To facilitate this work, a section of the footpath between the new Lidl entrance and the River Suir Walkway is expected to remain closed, including the River Suir walkway itself.
To facilitate the installation of hot rolled asphalt as part of road maintenance; Tipperary County Council have made the decision to operate a phased closures of routes R497 and R503, at Knockmaroe Junction, Kilcommon, Thurles, with effect from 7:00am on Monday, September 18th, until 7:00pm on Friday September 22nd.
Alternative routes for motorists are as follows:
R503 West Bound: From Thurles to Limerick: via R498 to Nenagh and M7 to Limerick.
From Milestone to Kilcommon: South via R497 and L1152 to Boulanunane and north to the R503 at Loughbrack via L5108.
R503 East Bound: From Kilcommon to Thurles: via L2266 to Reiska, R497 to Dolla, R499 to Ballinamona and R498 to Thurles.
R497 North & South Bound: Via R503 to McCormack’s Cross and L2266 to Kilcommon and Reiska and vice versa.
Emergency services are understood to be responding to yet another serious and tragic road traffic collision in South Co. Tipperary this evening. Three people, including a child, are believed to have died and two other adult passengers in the car are also injured, one understood to be in a very critical condition.
According to gardaí, the vehicle was in a single-vehicle incident, which occurred near the townland of Rathcoun outside Cashel, shortly after 9:00pm this evening.
Gardaí and emergency services are currently at the scene and the road remains currently closed to traffic with local diversions in place.
An Garda Síochána are currently in the process of informing families of this latest tragic incident and are requesting time and space in order to do so.
A full garda investigation will now look to establish the circumstances surrounding this latest crash.
The collision this evening comes just four days after four young people died in a crash in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.
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