N40 incident: Three people hospitalised following four-car pile up

Three people were taken to Cork University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after a four-car collision on the N40 South Ring Road tonight.

The crash which occurred Eastbound at Junction 9 Bloomfield resulted in major tailbacks in the area.

Speaking to the Echo, Gardaí said that emergency services had been at the scene from 6.30pm and the Fire Brigade used hydraulic cutting equipment to free one individual.

Motorists were being advised to take alternate routes and to expect delays with traffic building up around the area.

Gardaí have four units at the scene to assist in traffic diversions as well as helping the other emergency services.

The road was cleared by 8.30pm.

34 crashes were logged on the N40 in 2018, compared to 41 the previous year, a decrease of seven.

The overall number of incidents, including collisions and breakdowns, also fell from 125 to 113 last year.

At the same time, the number of vehicle kilometres travelled on the route between the Dunkettle roundabout and the N22 interchange near Ballincollig rose by 3.1% to 340 million km.

The Transport Infrastructure Ireland figures reveal that several sections of the N40 now carry in excess of 80,000 vehicles on an average day.

The busiest section of the South Ring Road is between the Kinsale Road roundabout and the Bloomfield junction, which carried a daily average of 86,000 vehicles in 2018.