Car smashes into statue after veering across busy N11
MIRACULOUSLY nobody was hurt on Friday afternoon after a car swerved onto the wrong side of the road in Oylegate before colliding with the ICA statue that stands proudly in the village.
The statue was completely taken off of its plinth and the front of the car was left a mangled mess as passers-by looked on.
A Wexford town man in his 30s was arrested at the scene and brought to Enniscorthy Garda Station and a file is currently being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions in relation to driving offences.
The car was heading towards Wexford at the time the incident occurred and swerved onto the wrong side of the road before colliding with a pole and the statue. It is not yet known exactly what caused the driver to swerve to the other side of the road and gardaí refused to comment on whether alcohol was a factor.
With such a high volume of traffic passing through Oylegate at that time in the afternoon, it’s somewhat of a miracle that the driver didn’t collide with oncoming traffic and gardaí have said that it was extremely fortunate that nobody was seriously hurt. Had the incident occurred just a short time later, school traffic would have been passing through the village and it could have been an altogether more different outcome.
Meanwhile, the ICA statue, which was unveiled in 2010 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the organisation at a cost of over €4,000, is left lying face down in the grass at the side of the road in the village.
‘We’re hopeful that there’s not too much damage done,’ said Anne Doran of the local ICA guild. ‘There’s a few chips out of it alright, but it seems to be mostly in tact. We won’t really know the full extent of the damage until we lift it up, but the gardaí told us to leave it for the time being.
‘In a way, it’s a good job that the statue was there, because if not the car could have ended up driving into the houses or anything. We’re hoping it will be back standing soon anyway.’