Woman’s body undiscovered for hours after car overturned into field

A woman who died after her car overturned into a field was not found for several hours. Catherine Lynch, 56, died late on Friday night. Her car drove off a narrow country road, at Shanaway West, near Miltown Malbay, in Co Clare.

Ms Lynch, from Quilty, lay beneath the car for two hours before the crash was discovered. While gardaí have confirmed that the single-vehicle accident happened at about 11.00pm on Friday, emergency services weren’t alerted until 2.00am on Saturday.

The silver Volkswagen car hit a ditch before flipping over, into a field, and landing on its roof. A man heard a ‘bang’ at around 11.00pm, but thought nothing of it.

Later, however, he went to investigate and discovered a car on its roof, in thick overgrowth in a field near his home.

The man raised the alarm and emergency services rushed to the scene.

Gardaí, an ambulance, and two units of the fire brigade, from Ennistymon, attended the incident. Fire crews searched the car and the local area, but could find no-one inside.

Soon afterwards, emergency crews discovered the victim beneath the vehicle.

It appears the victim had been thrown from the car in the impact.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene and her body removed to University Hospital Limerick, where a post-mortem examination was due to be carried out.

A local man said: “This is a quiet enough road, probably only used by farmers, locals, and a few who might know the area.

“You could drive past that spot in daylight and you mightn’t have seen the car in the ditch. It’s an awful tragedy.”