Three people killed and 12 seriously injured on Irish roads over bank holiday weekend

Gardai have renewed their appeal to motorists to slow down following a weekend of carnage on Irish roads which saw three people die in crashes across the country.

The fatal collisions happened in Limerick, Dublin and Westmeath and gardai say there were another 11 serious collisions across the country that resulted in 12 people, including a number of young children, receiving serious and life-threatening injuries.

Investigations are underway in relation to each of the collisions while gardai say they also attended a number of other road traffic incidents which were less serious - particularly on Good Friday during the poor weather.

The high number of serious road crashes over the bank holiday weeks comes in spite of an extensive garda roads policing operation between 7am on Holy Thursday and 7am this Tuesday.

Gardai say they carried out more than 900 Mandatory Intoxicant Testing checkpoints and that over 4,500 breath tests and 213 oral fluid tests were performed which led to 149 arrests for driving under the influence of an intoxicant.

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Throughout the weekend, over 2,800 speeding offences were detected while more than 1,000 other offences were detected including drivers using a mobile phone (225), unaccompanied learner drivers (160) and driving without a seat belt (73).

Across the bank holiday weekend, gardai seized more than 500 vehicles including 438 which did not have tax or insurance

Commenting following the conclusion of the weekend road policing operation, a spokesperson said: "An Garda Síochána continue to appeal to all road users to never drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, to slow down and to always choose a speed that is appropriate to the driving conditions, to wear your seatbelt and keep your eyes always on the road."