>> Garda plea amid Easter campaign to stay safe

GARDAI have revealed one in three people killed or seriously injured on our roads this year were under the age of 30.

- BY CILLIAN SHERLOCK

The grim toll emerged as the Road Safety Authority urged all road users to stay safe over the Easter weekend.

Investigations have not yet ruled on the cause of some of this year's young victims.

They include 18-year-old Agri-cultural student Dessie O'Kelly who died after a tractor crash in Leitrim on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, six-year-old Ula Grigaityte was killed while she was cycling her bike after she was struck by a truck in Galway.

On Mother's Day, Susan O'Sullivan died in a head-on collision in Mallow, Co Cork. She was declared dead at the scene while her two young children whom she had taken to visit her mother were rushed to hospital.

Their injuries were described as not being life-threatening. In March, pals Shaun McClafferty (17) and Jamie Diver, who was in his 20s, died after hitting the gable wall of a house in Donegal.

In February, five-year-old Aaron Hussain died after he was hit by a car in the estate where he lived in Portlaoise, Co Laois.

In January, Bhargav Chitturi (23) and Suresh Cherukuri (24) were killed in a single-vehicle crash in Carlow.