Hail causes motorway havoc

GARDAÍ have advised motorists to exercise caution and to slow down on the motorways during hazardous weather events, following a number of minor collisions this week in the Athenry area.

Short-lived but intense showers of hail have been blamed for a number of incidents that occurred on the motorway network on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning of this week.

In one incident shortly before 5pm on Tuesday evening, a car travelling towards Galway on the M6 near Athenry, collided with the crash barrier dividing the motorway routes.

Emergency services were called to the scene but it is understood that the driver of the car wasn’t seriously injured but was in shock after the incident.

All of this comes just days after Storm Brendan led to power outages at thousands of Galway homes and also caused flooding at the Salthill Promenade – although overall the county escaped relatively unscathed from the orange rated wind event.

The strongest gust in the western region during Storm Brendan was recorded at the Met Éireann weather station at Mace Head in South-West Connemara where a wind speed of 122km/h, or 76mph, was clocked up.

Salthill Promenade and nearby car-parks were flooded for a time on Monday evening at high-tide shortly after 7pm – however the adjacent road had been closed some time previously while the car-parks had all been evacuated.

See both stories in this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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