Gardaí, NRA urged to act over motorway missile attacks

GARDAÍ and the National Roads Authority (NRA) were yesterday pressed to take action to halt missiles being hurled from flyovers on the country’s longest motorway, the M4.

No injuries were reported but drivers and passengers had miraculous escapes in recent days as building materials and crash barrier beams were dropped on seven passing vehicles in the Midlands.

Gardaí in Kinnegad, Co Westmeath, confirmed they were investigating a series of incidents in the past week along a new stretch of the €150 million motorway which stretches to Kilcock in Co Kildare.

At least seven cars, it emerged last night, had been damaged by attackers throwing stones, concrete blocks, steel bars and other debris on passing vehicles.

Gardaí said the missiles were thrown from three different flyovers along the motorway. Most of the incidents took place at night.

Fianna Fáil’s Donie Cassidy yesterday described the attacks as barbaric and called on the NRA to install surveillance cameras.

“Throwing a concrete block down 25 feet on top of a vehicle could instantly kill someone,” he said.

“It’s outrageous behaviour and I would appeal to locals, and parents in particular, to be extra vigilant as to who could be involved.”

Teacher Mary Tobin said she braked and swerved as a concrete block landed on the bonnet of her vehicle.

She had spotted youths on a flyover.

“I could have been killed,” she said.

“I was lucky this time but I was very shaken.”

Gardaí were contacted on Tuesday after a Longford family, Noel and Tracey Burke, and their six-month-old baby Amy, faced the ordeal of a steel barrier hitting their windscreen.

“We were just inches from death,” said the young mother, whose daughter, wrapped in a blanket, was showered with shards of glass. Their jeep was travelling at around 100km/hr outside Kinnegad on the Mullingar road when the beam struck the vehicle.

“I don’t know how Noel managed to keep control,” his wife said. “The metal came out of nowhere.”

The garda press office said last night that there had not been any arrests but gardaí in the Midlands were investigating the incidents.

“There were extremely dangerous acts that could have resulted in serious injuries or deaths,” a spokesperson said.

“Concrete blocks thrown from that height are very dangerous weapons and it was just lucky that no one was hurt.”

Gardaí advised motorists to exercise caution near flyovers.