I could have been buried and he wouldn’t know’

A NURSE who could lose her leg after being hit by a car driven by over-the-limit Fianna Fáil TD GV Wright said yesterday she had no sympathy for the north Dublin deputy.

Anne Butler, who could lose one of her legs from the smash, said she wanted a personal apology from the politician. Mr Wright had been drinking before the crash and has admitted he was over the limit when breathalysed by gardaí.

“I have no sympathy for him whatsoever. I could be in Glasnevin cemetery right now,” she said. Ms Butler, 50, from the North Strand, in the north inner city, said that the TD should say sorry.

“I could have been buried and he wouldn’t know the difference. Nobody contacted me, no phonecalls, no message, no card, not even a few flowers sent to the hospital just to see was I still alive. I’m a very, very lucky person to be alive,” she said.

Ms Butler said her leg was broken in four places when a car driven by Mr Wright hit her at speed on the North Strand last Thursday week.

“He was just flying, like a rocket. He was like Batman. I knew he was going to hit me. I knew there was no way I was going to get off that road. I said ‘Jesus Christ I’m dead’.”

She said she remembered spinning up into the air. “I came down on the bonnet and straight down on the concrete onto the back of my head.”

Ms Butler, a nurse for over 30 years, said her head was split and she was bleeding. The fire brigade placed her in restraints in case she had any spinal injuries. She said she spent seven days in the Mater Hospital and was operated on twice.

“I have 80-90 steel pins all up my shin bones, my leg and my knee and God knows how many stitches. I’ll be like this for 20 weeks.”

She said she could lose her leg. “If it doesn’t work out according to the way it’s planned I can lose my leg from the knee down.”

Ms Butler said she would like to meet Mr Wright personally.

“I would like to see him face-to- face to say what is the point of the Minister for Transport bringing in the points system when clearly it obviously doesn’t work with his colleagues.”

Ms Butler was recovering in her cottage near Croke Park yesterday as friends and neighbours checked on her condition. A spokesperson for Mr Wright said he had been given strong legal advice not to contact Ms Butler.

The spokesperson added it was the deputy’s intention to apologise personally when appropriate.