Six-car collision causes chaos in Cork

A six-car collision on Cork city’s South Ring Road caused traffic chaos across the city at rush hour yesterday evening.

The accident happened just before the turn off for Mahon on the eastbound dual carriageway at approximately 4.55pm.

Following the collision one of the vehicles, a small Fiat, went up in flames.

Emergency services, including five units of Cork city fire brigade, were on the scene quickly and the fire was extinguished.

Cork: Emergency services dealing with a 6 car collision, e/bound - Jack Lynch Tunnel. Traffic @ 1 lane, major delays. pic.twitter.com/may6HQq93d

— An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) June 5, 2014

A trauma doctor from Cork University Hospital arrived on scene to examine the 11 people who had been in the six cars at the time of the accident.

It was decided that six should be brought to hospital, though none are thought to have suffered serious injuries.

One woman posted a message on Facebook shortly after the accident in which she said: “We were the 7th car after 6 involved in accident. Everyone seemed to be up and walking after. Scary.”

Traffic behind the crash scene was brought to a standstill and the congestion soon stretched a number of miles back.

There was one report that it was taking 30 minutes to get from Cork Airport to the Kinsale Road roundabout while the accident was being dealt with.

By just before 7pm, emergency services were able to re-open the road so that the traffic on the South Link Road could get moving once more.