‘I found my daughter trapped. I will never forget it’

A FATHER came on a road crash yesterday to discover his daughter trapped in the wreckage after a runaway tarmacadam roller hurtled into a line of traffic.

Roger Lonergan said the scene on the Limerick-Tipperary route, the N24, was like a “battlefield”.

“There were injured people hanging out of car doors. I found my daughter trapped in her car and I’ll never forget it.”

Six people were injured, three seriously, after the roller careered along the road just before 9.30am, crashing into cars.

Two of the most seriously-injured are men in their 20s and from the Tipperary town area.

Among the injured were Margaret O’Donnell and her son, Luke, from the Channel Islands. They had come to Tipperary to lay to rest the ashes of husband and father John O’Donnell. They were heading to Shannon to catch a flight home.

The roller was being transported on a trailer which became detached from the jeep towing it at Lenfield, near Pallasgreen.

Roger Lonergan’s daughter Hazel, 22, was one of those injured.

Mr Lonergan, who runs a local garage, said: “She passed me on the road in her car a few minutes earlier and saluted me. Then I got a call on her mobile telling me she was in a crash.

“I drove up the road and could not believe what I saw — bits of cars everywhere and injured people hanging out doors and windows of cars. I never saw anything like it in all my life.

“I went to Hazel’s car and she was trapped in the seat and could not move. I kept telling her to take deep breaths and not to be looking at the other cars. I was afraid she would go into shock.

“The fire brigade came and cut the door away to get her free and the ambulance took her to the hospital in Limerick. She seems to be ok. I got an awful shock when I came on her trapped in the car.”

The roller fell from the trailer and both hurtled along the main road crashing into cars which were travelling in both directions.

It led to a pile-up involving five cars. Some of the injured had to be cut from the wreckage and eight ambulances and four fire tenders sped to the scene.

The route was closed for most of day.

The garda helicopter assisted in the rescue operation. Inspector Pat Connolly, Henry Street, Limerick who coordinated the rescue said: “A jeep pulling a trailer, which was caring the roller, collided with a car going in the opposite direction. As a result of this initial minor collision, the trailer went out of control and struck another oncoming car and the roller then became detached from the trailer and collided with other cars. Six people were removed by ambulance to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital some with serious and critical injuries.”

Witnesses are asked to contact the gardaí.

A spokesman for the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick said three of the injured were in a serious condition and another three had non-life threatening injuries.

The jeep was removed for garda examination.