NINE DEER DIED yesterday after a herd was struck by a train in between Limerick Junction and Thurles.

The incident occurred on the 4.25pm train from Cork to Heuston. 

Barry Kenny, Irish Rail spokesperson, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland it would be an unusual place for deer to be on the line.

“There was some damage to the train,” he said. “The driver was able to rectify the damage and the train had about a 40-minute delay.”

He said Irish Rail had observed an increase in the number of animals on train lines since last summer, citing an incident where six cattle were killed on the tracks in September on the Dublin-Waterford line at Thomastown.

“Obviously when a train strikes animals – not to be facetious – but the animals come off worse,” Kenny said. “The situation at Thomastown was potentially very serious where we had cattle lodged under the train.

We have work to do to secure boundaries, and farmers should ensure level crossing gates were crossed. We review any incidents afterwards to see how the animals accessed the line to ensure we can protect it.

Kenny added the driver acted extremely professionally in yesterday’s incident, and minimised the delay for customers.