A man has been killed after his car left the road, smashed through a fence and crashed into a field near Glanmire in Cork.
The alarm was raised around 7am when a passerby spotted a car in a field near junction 18 on the M8.
It’s believed the car had been travelling southbound on the R639, which runs parallel to the M8 at this location, when it crashed through a fence at the beginning of a sweeping right bend and careered through waste ground before coming to a rest in a field.
The driver, who was the sole occupant of the vehicle, suffered fatal injuries.
Emergency services including two HSE ambulances and paramedics, a critical care doctor, two units of the County Fire service from Midleton and three from Cork city, as well as gardai, rushed to the scene.
But the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Gardai have closed the northern off-ramp at junction 18 for a full technical examination by garda forensic collision investigation.
They are expected to issue an appeal for witnesses later.
