Pregnant woman cut from vehicle

A HEAVILY pregnant woman had to be cut from the car in which she was a passenger after the vehicle collided with a van in the main street of a town in Co Clare yesterday.

The minor collision occurred shortly after 1pm at Church Street in Ennistymon. It resulted in two women being hospitalised and the main street being closed for more than an hour.

The silver Rover car apparently crashed into the rear of a van at a junction, however, neither vehicle sustained any serious damage. There was only slight damage to the grill of the car while there was no visible damage to the van.

Two ambulances and a rapid response advanced paramedic unit as well as two fire brigade units were sent to the scene.

On arrival, despite finding the collision to be “very minor”, rescuers found a heavily pregnant woman, believed to be in her 20s, in the front passenger seat. Another woman in her 50s was in the rear of the car while the male driver was standing nearby but was unhurt. The male driver of the van was also uninjured.

Despite the minimal damage to the vehicle, fire crews had to remove the roof and doors of the vehicle to remove the two women. The woman in the rear of the car complained of a back injury but is also known to have a cardiac history.

The only way the casualties could be removed from the vehicle was by placing them on rigid spinal boards which meant that fire crews had to use specialist cutting equipment to remove the vehicle’s roof and four doors.

One rescuer said: “When we arrived, it looked like it wasn’t serious at all. The airbags in the car did go off but the damage to the front of the car was very minor altogether. Because the airbags were activated and the woman in the rear complained of a pain in her back, we had to follow protocol and remove the casualties on spinal boards. To do that we had to cut the roof and doors off.”

The older woman was taken by ambulance to Ennis General Hospital but was expected to be discharged following treatment last night.

Meanwhile, the pregnant passenger was taken to the Mid Western Regional Maternity Hospital in Limerick as a precaution.

It is understood the expectant mother was very shaken by the collision but was otherwise uninjured.

A large crowd gathered at the scene while traffic in Ennistymon was brought to a standstill while emergency services dealt with the incident. Gardaí are investigating the collision.