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M18 closed for a time following collision

Photo: © Pat Flynn 2015
Photo: © Pat Flynn 2015

The M18 was closed for a short time this afternoon following a second collision on the route today.

Gardaí and Clare County Council have warned motorists of high winds that have been forecast and expected to last for most of the afternoon.

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Met Éireann has issued a medium level ‘Orange Alert’ for counties including Clare.

Two singe-vehicle collisions have already occurred on the M18 today.

The first happened at around 7.30am in the northbound lane between Barefield and Crusheen. The driver escaped serious injury.

Shortly before 1.00pm, a car lost control and collided with a crash barrier in the central reservation of the M18 between Newmarket on Fergus and Dromoland.

AA M18 171115

Units of the fire brigade from Shannon along with Gardaí and an ambulance responded to the incident.

One fire service vehicle created a rolling roadblock and brought traffic to a safe stop before they reached the accident scene.

Photo: © Pat Flynn 2015
One fire service vehicle created a rolling roadblock – Photo: © Pat Flynn 2015

One person has been taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Traffic had been backed up for over a kilometre for about 40 minutes before one lane of the route was reopened.

Once the crashed car was removed from the scene, the second land of the motorway was also opened.

Photo: © Pat Flynn 2015
This fallen tree blocked the road at Carnelly, Clarecastle for a time – Photo: © Pat Flynn 2015

Meanwhile, fire crews from across the county have been dealing with several reports of fallen trees.

Fire crews from Ennis, Shannon and Scarriff have been dealing with incidents in Ennis, Clarecastle, Whitegate and Clooney.

Photo: © Pat Flynn 2015
This roadsign in Ennis buckled under the force of tdoays high winds – Photo: © Pat Flynn 2015

A Ryanair flight aborted two attempted landings at Shannon Airport before being forced to divert to Liverpool.

The airport reported the highest winds in the country as Storm Barney battered the island with the west coast suffering the brunt of it’s force.

With winds at Cork and Dublin also too strong for Ryanair flight FR-1183 from London Gatwick, the opted to divert to the nearest suitable airport which in this case was Liverpool.

The flight was due in Shannon at 6.30pm while Ryanair has apologised to customers for the inconvenience.

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