Runaway horse causes €4,500 worth of damage to woman's car

She said the horse was galloping at a high speed while its owner chased it towards Bridgefoot street at about 9.45am. It was a tourist carriage that was attached to the horse.

Speaking to Damien O'Reilly on Liveline this evening, she said the horse was travelling straight for her car.

"I just turned the corner to go into the Thomas Street, car park and all I could see was this horse and carriage coming straight for me so I came to a dead stop.

"I really thought the horse was going to come up on the front of the car but thankfully at the last minute he veered around the driver's side and it was the back of the carriage that damaged my car," she said.

Ms Kennedy said people stopped to tell her how lucky she was.

"It sounds funny when I'm talking about it but it was quite scary at the time. People who stopped and came over to me afterwards were all telling me how lucky I was," she said.

When asked about the speed of the horse Ms Kennedy said she didn't know the technical term to explain but said the horse was galloping at a high speed and the impact caused major damage to her car.

"There was quite an impact when the wheel of the carriage hit my car. It actually cut a circle out of the headlight on my car and scrapped it along the side and broke the driver's mirror.

"It's €4,500 worth of damage and unfortunately the most expensive part of that is that the bang knocked out the centre of my steering column and that's the expensive piece to fix as well as the visible damage," she said.

Ms Kennedy said the man running after the horse never acknowledged her - he just kept running after the horse.

"He just kept running after the horse which is fair enough because my initial thought was that I hope the horse is ok but I did wait for over an hour and he never came back, I was hoping he would," she said.

Ms Kennedy said she didn't know if the man saw exactly what happened but because of the impact she expected there would be damage done to the wheel of his carriage.

She said her car was the only one to be hit by the horse but others stopped and commented and passed on their contact details as witnesses.

She went to Kevin St Garda station where she reported the incident and said the Gardaí were sympathetic and concerned that she was ok but told her in these sort of circumstances it would be difficult to trace the driver unless there was cctv.

The Gardaí informed Ms Kennedy that the carriages are licensed by Dublin city council, which she contacted.

The person responsible for licensing at Dublin city council tried to help Ms Kennedy identify the man, but due to limited details and little description, they could not identify him and no one has come forward to say their carriage has been damaged.

Ms Kennedy's car insurance company have said because of the age of her car they will probably "have to write it off" and although she has full comprehensive cover it will affect her no claims bonus.

Ms Kennedy said that although she will be out of pocket regardless she wants to find the driver in hope that his insurance will cover the damage and to see if the horse is ok.