Driver airlifted to hospital after motorway crash

A MOTORIST was airlifted to hospital following an early morning collision on the M11 north of Gorey on Friday morning.

The man in his forties, said to be from the Kilmore Quay area, sustained serious chest and shoulder injuries after his Land Cruiser left the road near junction 21, and went up an embankment where it crashed through a fence and into a field.

Such was the seriousness of the driver’s injuries, that the Coastguard helicopter was called to airlift him to hospital in Dublin. He remained in critical condition over the weekend.

The crash occurred at Ashwood Upper on the Wexford Wicklow border between 9 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. It was one of three crashes in the area on Friday morning.

Just minutes earlier in the same area, another vehicle collided with the central median. Both incidents were unrelated. The motorist in this vehicle wasn’t said to be injured.

Emergency services attended the scene of both crashes. The incidents were attributed to wet weather. Traffic flow was reduced to one lane while gardaí from Gorey and Arklow, and fire and ambulance crews remained at the scene.

Then, across the motorway at the same location at 11 a.m., a car rear-ended a caravan being pulled by a car in the southbound lane. The southbound carriageway was closed while the emergency services dealt with the incident. A motorist was taken to hospital as a precaution.