Inquiry into crash involving Garda car after woman is left seriously ill

THE Garda Ombudsman is investigating a ‘head-on’ collision between a Garda patrol car and a people-carrier which overturned.

The incident occurred at 2.10am on Saturday and resulted in a woman ending up in intensive care.

Waterford City Fire Service and paramedics rushed to the entrance of the ESB Electric Ireland premises on Grace Dieu Road at the Congress Place junction in Waterford.

Locals said that a Garda car was travelling down the hill at Grace Dieu towards the city when it collided with a Citroën Picasso people-carrier outside the ESB gates.

A woman was taken to the ICU at University Hospital Waterford and while her condition has been described as ‘serious’, her injuries are not life-threatening.

It is the third October in a row that cars have crashed in the Congress Place area.

Two years ago this month, a car lost control on ice and struck a wall. And less than 100 metres away, last October, a young driver hit a neighbour’s wall again.

Resident Mary Willmott, of Grace Dieu Road, said that she came out straight after the accident on Saturday morning and heard a woman shouting “I want to get out, I want to get out!”. She said that there was smoke coming from the ‘flipped’ vehicle. The road was closed until to 4pm on Saturday, while gardaí and the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission investigated the accident.

‘The van was a write-off. They had to cut her out. It was a big accident now [and] the whole street was out,’ Ms Wilmott added.

‘I got an awful fright when I saw her. She was in an awful state. They had a job to cut her out.’ Ms Willmott said that the gardaí were looking for fire extinguishers from neighbours to deal with the fire.

Another Congress Place resident, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘It’s a very fast road... It was literally in front of the ESB gates. It looked like they just went head-on into each other.’