Clare Barr was crossing the road close to her home on the Navan Road in Dublin on Friday afternoon when she was struck by a garda's private car. The 77-year-old was an aunt of former Dublin footballer Keith Barr.

The officer's black Volkswagen Golf car hit the pensioner at around 2pm on Friday at a busy road close to the Halfway House pub.

The garda, who is based at Blanchardstown station, had just come off the dual carriageway opposite the old Phoenix Park racecourse when his car struck the pensioner at a set of traffic lights beside a bus stop.

An ambulance arrived on the scene and she was rushed to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown but was pronounced dead on arrival.

The garda was not officially working at the time but he was on his way in to the city centre to give evidence at the Bridewell District Court. Gardai are required to attend all court cases in which they are involved, even if it is their day off.

When gardai determined the individual involved in the accident was a garda, they contacted the Garda Ombusdman Commission, as is required by law. Investigators from the office were called to the scene and closed the road for a number of hours while they carried out forensic tests in a bid to determine the cause of the accident.

There was traffic chaos around west Dublin as a result of the road closure. There were several witnesses to the incident and all have given statements describing what they saw.

Sources say the ombudsman's investigation is still ongoing and officers are keeping an "open mind" on the incident. However, nobody has been arrested for questioning. The garda involved has also given a statement and is said to be traumatised by what happened.

Clare Barr lived on the Navan Road with her brother and it is understood she was a widow. She was a paternal aunt of Keith Barr, the former Dublin All Star who played in the 1990s.

Friday's accident was the sixth fatality this year involving gardai. Five have been investigated by the ombudsman's office.

On 15 August, the mother of an offduty officer was killed in Lenamore, Tuam, Co Galway after the garda's vehicle struck a wall. On 30 July, a motorcyclist in Tuam, Co Galway lost his life after an apparent attempt to evade gardai.

The day before, a male pedestrian in his 50s died in Glebe, Oughterard, Co Galway after being involved in a collision with a car driven by an offduty garda. In the same month, an investigation was launched after a car crossed the border from Donegal in an apparent attempt to evade gardai.

The ombudsman is not investigating the incident where 24-year-old Derek O'Toole was killed on Main Street, Lucan on 24 March.

O'Toole was said to be lying on the road when he was struck by a car containing four offduty gardai. The ombudsman's office was not setup at the time.