Shaken McEllistrim back canvassing following car crash

KERRY Fianna Fáil TD Tom McEllistrim is back on the election campaign trail a little over an hour after being involved in a car crash which resulted in two people being brought to hospital.

The Kerry North-Limerick West TD was on his way to hand-deliver his election nomination papers to the county registrar’s office in Tralee when his car was in a serious collision with another vehicle at Ballyseedy Cross, on the main Tralee to Killarney and Castleisland road.

The crash occurred shortly after 10am when Mr McEllistrim’s Opel Insignia was in a collision with a Volkswagen Golf. The male driver of the VW and a woman who was a front seat passenger in Mr McEllistrim’s car were both taken to hospital and treated for shock, but their injuries were not said to be serious.

It is understood the TD was accompanied at the time by a Canadian national who had worked as an intern in the Dáil and was assigned to Mr McEllistrim’s office to assist him with his election campaign in what will be a hard-fought constituency battle.

The Tralee-based TD was said to be very visibly shaken and was bleeding from a minor wound to his left hand, but he did not require hospitalisation and was fit to hand in his nomination forms and resume his canvass over an hour later.

Two ambulances were called as gardaí conducted a technical examination.

Efforts to contact the TD last night proved unsuccessful, but a Fianna Fáil source said he was “doing fine” and was happy that everybody involved emerged relatively unscathed from the ordeal. “Tom got a real fright but he was back canvassing within an hour or an hour and a half of it happening,” the source said.

McEllistrim, a single man and a former secondary school teacher, was first elected to the Dáil in 2002 and retained his seat in 2007. He is the third generation of the McEllistrim family to represent the Kerry North constituency.

His father, also Tom, served as a TD and Senator at various stages between 1969 and 1992 and was also Minister of State for Finance and Minister of State at the Department of Fisheries and Forestry during Charles J Haughey’s term as FF leader.

His grandfather, Tom Snr, a War of Independence veteran, was also a Fianna Fáil TD from 1923 until 1969.

Mr McEllistrim’s sister, Anne, is a Fianna Fáil member on Kerry County Council.