Crashes cause two-hour traffic delays

Rush hour traffic came to a standstill for nearly two hours yesterday morning on the southside of Cork City, following two separate collisions that saw four people suffer minor injuries.

The incidents were two of five collisions yesterday in Cork that required the presence of the gardaí or emergency services.

Both accidents occurred on westbound lanes of the N40 South Ring Rd. The first occurred between the Bloomfield junction and the Kinsale Rd roundabout, while the second accident occurred between Mahon and Bloomfield.

A total of four vehicles were involved in the two accidents which resulted in long tailbacks along one of Cork’s main arterial roads.

Motorist Caroline Newell said that she came upon the tail end of the traffic jam at 9.25am, and she remained at a standstill until 11.10am.

She said the emergency services’ efforts to reach the accident were hampered by the lack of a hard shoulder along the dual carriageway as the road heads westbound from the Rochestown slipway onto the South Ring and the flyover at Douglas.

“It was 15 minutes before the first ambulance arrived and cars in both lanes had to move to the side to allow it to go through the middle,” she said.

Fire services later arrived and suffered significant delays in reaching the scene as it navigated the stationary traffic.

Tow trucks later cleared the vehicles, and traffic returned to its normal volume shortly before noon.

Emergency services also attended a later collision in the left lane of the South Ring Road westbound between the Togher and Sarsfield Rd junctions. Traffic was slow on approach to the scene of the accident.

Gardaí, meanwhile, also attended to an accident on the South Ring between South Douglas Rd and the Kinsale Rd Roundabout at approximately 3.30pm.

And motorists on the main eastern approach to the city also experienced heavy delays following a four-car collision near the skew bridge on the Lower Glanmire Rd yesterday afternoon.