WATERFORD

Kids ‘blessed’ after creche smash escape

TWENTY children and four staff narrowly escaped death after a car ploughed into a creche yesterday.

The workers and pre-school kids – most aged three and four – were “absolutely blessed” not to have been injured or killed.

A car driven by a woman with a male passenger and some children on board entered the Waterford creche car park at 9.20am.

The vehicle continued to travel around 20ft over a grassy area and into the building.

The car struck the wall so hard it pushed out a radiator and some blocks inside the room.

Irish police, paramedics and firefighters rushed to the scene of the crash but thankfully there were no injuries.

Parents of the children hurried to First Steps Creche on the Ballybeg local authority housing estate after being told of the news.

Some took their children home while the remainder were moved to another room.

Childcare manager at the not-for-profit creche Carmel Staunton said: “Early this morning, a parent arrived in on site and lost control of their car and it ran into a window, which houses the pre-school Montessori room.

“Obviously shock was the first thing but the staff went into action and called the services, removed the children from the area.

“All children were checked and all staff were checked and there is nothing physically wrong with anyone who was in that area.

“Now, there is some structural damage done to the room, which means we will have to close that room for a week. We had an engineer on site.”