Rural Irish rally car race crash kills two, leaves seven injured

A RACE car has gone out of control on a rural Irish road and crashed into a crowd of about 30 spectators, killing two people and seriously injuring seven.

Cavan Stages Rally

A RACE car has gone out of control on a rural Irish road and crashed into a crowd of about 30 spectators, killing two people and seriously injuring seven.

Witnesses said the car crashed through a fence and into onlookers before coming to rest on its side beside a home near Bailieborough, 80km northwest of Dublin.

Police said two people - a 29-year-old woman from Cork and a 50-year-old male photographer from Galway - were declared dead at the scene.

Seven others, including the driver and navigational co-driver, were hospitalised with unspecified injuries.

The accident highlighted the dangers posed to drivers and viewers alike by Ireland's annual high-speed contests on hedge-lined, narrow country roads.

At least four other people have been killed during races over the past decade as hundreds of kilometres of unmodified local roads are blocked off for use by souped-up rally cars.

Organisers of the Cavan Stages Rally involving about 100 cars in the border county of Cavan cancelled the event following the accident.

Police Superintendent Gerry O'Brien said it was too early to say whether a mechanical failure or driver error caused the accident.

He said the car, a modified Ford Escort, "went over a hump in the road, it went midair, and when it landed it appears it lost control and drove into spectators - a group of 30-odd people".

One witness, Matthew McMahon, described the chaotic aftermath.

"I heard people screaming 'Red flag, red flag, stop the stage!' Then all hell broke loose basically. There were people crying, people white as ghosts," he told Irish state radio RTE.