Post-mortem examinations are due to be carried out on the bodies of a woman and two girls who died when the car they were travelling in collided with a truck in Co Mayo yesterday afternoon.
Their bodies were removed from the scene to Mayo University Hospital last evening.
It is understood they were related and were all were pronounced dead at the scene.
The fatal incident happened shortly before 2pm yesterday, at Castlegar, a short distance from Claremorris.
The driver of the lorry was not injured.
The scene of the tragedy was preserved last night and will be subject to further forensic analysis this morning.
Local diversions have been put in place, re-routing traffic travelling in either direction on the N17.
Gardaí, who have not named the deceased, have asked the public to refrain from sharing images of the crash site on social media.
They have also appealed for witnesses to the crash to come forward and are seeking any camera or dash-cam footage that might assist the investigation.
The deaths of the woman and two children bring to 52 the number of people who have died on Irish roads since the beginning of the year.
The crash happened along a section of the main Galway to Sligo road, where the route bypasses Claremorris.
Locals said last evening there had been several other collisions on the road in recent months.
In 2017, three generations of a north Mayo family died in a crash close to the scene of yesterday’s incident.
Mary Ann Wilson, who was 67, her 39-year-old daughter, Marcella, and her six-year-old son, Sean, died when the car they were travelling in collided with a truck on the N17 outside Claremorris on 11 September 2017.
At the inquests into their deaths, the coroner raised concerns about the design of the road, onto which several secondary routes merge.
