Driver who survived horrific crash hoping his luck will last
Fishermen Michael Byrne, 38, was driving to work when he hit a patch of black ice just after 5am.
His VW Golf car ended up upside down in a river at a notorious accident blackspot near Greencastle in Co Donegal, but amazingly he was rescued from the car.
He revealed: “There was a stump of a tree or something below the car and I think that saved me.
“I honestly don’t know how I survived. It’s a miracle. I don’t care about the car because I honestly thought I was dead.
“I sat there upside down in the car, thinking ‘how am I still here?’”
He managed to call the fire service, which arrived within minutes.
“I happened to know the fireman and, when he got to me, he told me I was the luckiest man alive.”
He was rushed to Letterkenny University Hospital but had no injuries and had suffered no ill effects apart from some dirt on his hands.
Mr Byrne added: “I realised how lucky I was then. My father came and collected me from the hospital and the first thing I did was to pull in and do the Lotto.
“Don’t be surprised if you hear Donegal has a new Lotto millionaire on Saturday night,” he said yesterday.
Michael, who lives in Greencastle, revealed how three different accidents had taken place on a 20-metre stretch of the same road within just a couple of hours yesterday morning.
He said the issue of the road, at Clar, Redcastle, needs to be addressed immediately before another serious accident happens.
He added: “I got up this morning and it was three or four degrees. There was no frost on my car.
“I was travelling at a normal speed and yet, the minute I touched the brakes, the car left me and I slid between a telegraph pole and the bridge and ended up in the river.
“There were three accidents in that short space of road. How many have there been over the years?
“The council needs to sort this road or people will die,” he warned.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
