Motorists blame speeding and driver error for Kildare pile-ups
Shaken motorists left stranded for hours by the side of motorways in Kildare tonight described miles of road carnage like a Hollywood movie.
And they were quick to blame high speeds and driver error for 20 car crashes which left dozens injured.
Tony Hennessey, who runs Hennessy’s Towing & Breakdown Service in Naas, removed many of the wrecked vehicles from the M7 and was adamant bad driving was to blame.
“It’s absolutely crazy – There’s about 50 cars, and they’re all written off, every last one of them. Never in my life have I seen such a thing and it’s purely bad drivers in fog not slowing down,” Mr Hennessey said.
“They were driving along with no lights on – I met loads of them. They were driving too fast, flying along in thick fog and they couldn’t see their hands in front of them.”
Witnesses spoke of red brake lights suddenly appearing out of the thick fog, drivers slamming on brakes forcing others to swerve into the central median, hard shoulders and roadside grass verges to avoid collisions.
Motorists in the middle lanes though were worst affected, having nowhere to go.
Many people, were motoring along in rush hour traffic on their way to work with no lights on, in poor visibility.
Superintendent Ken Brennan, the regional traffic chief based in Mullingar, also pointed the finger at careless drivers.
“At the time of the collisions this morning conditions were extremely hazardous, down to low visibility,” he said.
“Our opinion would be that they [drivers] had ample visibility if they would adjust their driving. Unfortunately most motorists didn’t adjust their driving to match the road and weather conditions and that contributed to the mayhem.”
Ger Cunningham, freelance journalist, who was left stranded for more than three hours said driving conditions were extremely difficult.
“It was very foggy, there was a dense fog over the Curragh and given the conditions a lot of people where probably going too fast. The rush-hour and getting to work was probably more important in most people’s minds,” he said.
A woman on her way to work told RTÉ Radio: “Traffic was really heavy and there were motorists with no lights on and doing big speed. I was behind a car that crashed into another car. I was lucky enough in that I had ABS in the car, so I think that really helped me a bit,” she said.
“But it was like carnage, it was like road carnage.
“It was just bizarre there were cars driving into the grass margin, just driving everywhere.
“They were definitely too fast for the conditions this morning. I suppose cars were doing 120 in the fast lane, but they weren’t allowing for the weather conditions and there was a lot of motorists with no lights on.”
