Suspected car thief jumps 35ft onto railway line after crash injures couple

A COUPLE in their 20s are lucky to be alive today after a stolen car smashed into the vehicle in which they were travelling in Cork city.

Within seconds of the impact on the bridge at Tivoli, known locally as the Skew Bridge, the alleged car thief had jumped out of the wrecked Audi A3 which he was driving and jumped over a 4ft wall at the side of the road.

However, on the other side of the wall there was a 35ft drop onto the Cork-Midleton railway line.

The man, who is aged 40 and is known to gardaí, sustained a suspected broken leg in the fall and lay alongside the railway track until emergency services were able to get to him.

According to gardaí, the car had been stolen minutes earlier, barely a mile away in MacCurtain St.

According to Superintendent Tom Myers of Mayfield, gardaí were just minutes away and were alerted to its location when it sped through a red light.

From MacCurtain St, the car sped past busy traffic, often on the wrong side of the road, past Kent Railway Station and along the Lower Glanmire Road out of the city.

Then at approximately 5.30pm, as it came to the sharp bend at the Skew Bridge, it appears the driver lost control and smashed into a blue Honda Civic coming in the other direction.

That car was carrying a couple in their 20s.

While the male occupant was able to get out of the Civic himself, his girlfriend had to be cut from her seat by fire crews.

Both sustained cuts and bruises.

Gardaí were on the scene within minutes, closely followed by four fire crews and three ambulance teams.

Iarnród Éireann stopped trains travelling along the railway line for half an hour, allowing rescue services and gardaí to get to the alleged car thief both by walking along the track and by climbing down ladders from the bridge overhead.

The man had to be winched back onto the bridge in a stretcher suspended from a fire engine. He and the occupants of the Honda Civic were then taken to hospital.

The busy roads on either side of the bridge had to be closed for a number of hours while a garda forensic team examined the scene.

Gardaí say a large number of drivers would have witnessed the Audi being driven in the run-up to the crash.

They are appealing for witnesses to contact Mayfield Garda Station on 021 4558510.