Police investigate first road rage fatality in Ireland

Englishman beaten to death with a hurley stick

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The junction in Ballsbridge, Dublin were Raymond Bates was attacked.

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Police are investigating the first road rage fatality in the history of Ireland.

Raymond Bates, a 49-year-old Englishman, has died of head injuries after he was beaten with a hurley stick by an angry motorist in south Dublin.

Bates, a married father from Newcastle, UK, had just moved to Dublin two months ago to work as a pipe-layer.

The road rage-fueled attack occurred around 7:30pm last Sunday evening in Ballsbridge, an exclusive Dublin suburb. Both men are believed to have stepped out of their vehicles, after which Bates was violently attacked.

The men were traveling in the same direction and were stopped at a red light  An argument broke out after one of the cars did not move away fast enough after the light changed. The attacker took the hurling stick form the trunk of his car and hit Bates repeatedly with it.

Bates made his way home after the incident but felt unwell and presented himself at St. Vincent’s Hospital the next day. He was then transferred to the country’s main neurological facility in Beaumont Hospital, where medics were forced to place the man into an induced coma. His condition worsened, and he passed away Thursday night.

The other motorist involved gave himself up  at Irishtown police station and is being questioned. No arrests have been made so far.

“We are following a definite line of enquiry and the investigation is going well,” said a police  spokesperson.

The police are urging witnesses to come forward to establish the circumstances surrounding the death.

“I heard in the local shop that someone had pulled out in front of someone else on the road,” said a man from the Sandymount area.

“It's shocking that it should come to this. It's the times we live in. It's very sad.”

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