Five people injured in two-car collision

FIVE people, including a young child, were injured yesterday after two cars collided on the M18 motorway about six kilometres from Ennis, closing part of the route for two hours.

The collision occurred at around 12.40pm at Manusmore between junctions 11 and 12 on the M18 Ennis Bypass. The female driver of a Nissan Micra had to be cut from the wreckage of her car by fire personnel while the four occupants of the second car managed to scramble to the safety of the hard shoulder before two women collapsed from their injuries.

Gardaí closed the northbound lanes of the M18 between Dromoland and Clarecastle so that emergency crews could deal with the incident. Five units of the fire brigade from Ennis and Shannon along with a fleet of ambulances from Clare and Limerick attended the incident.

A rapid response advanced paramedic team, specially trained in advanced life-support skills, assessed and stabilised the injured at the scene before each of the victims was prioritised for removal by ambulance to hospital. The three more seriously injured, all women, were taken to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick while a man and a young child were taken to Ennis General Hospital for treatment.

A rear-seat passenger in the Ford car was thrown into the front of the vehicle in the impact, sustaining serious injuries. The two women from the Ford Mondeo were found collapsed in the hard shoulder when emergency crews arrived. Their car came to a stop about 100 metres from the original point of impact.

Meanwhile, in Cork, a number of people were taken to hospital with minor injuries following a collision near Kinsale yesterday Gardaí closed the road between Halfway and the town for a period after the incident at about 3pm.