A woman had a lucky escape this afternoon after her car left a busy motorway and travelled 50 feet up and embankment before rolling back down again.
The single-vehicle incident happened at around 2.30pm on the M18, northbound, between Crusheen in Clare and Gort Co Galway.
Units of the fire brigade from Gort and Ennis raced to the scene along with National Ambulance Service paramedics and Gardaí.
On arrival at the scene, emergency services found the shaken driver lying on the ground close to her upturned vehicle. She had suffered only minor injuries but was left shocked by the incident.
The car is understood to have left a straight stretch of the motorway at Shanaglish on the Clare/Galway border and careered up a steep embankment before it came crashing down again. The car came to stop on its roof in the grass verge.
#CLARE #GALWAY Crash on M18 northbound. More here: https://t.co/PSzIBsvOzE
— AA Ireland (@aaroadwatch) September 14, 2019
Fire crews used their vehicles to fend off the scene and stop traffic so that ambulance paramedics could safely assess and treat the patient. After a time, fire personnel put a traffic management plan in place so that one lane of the motorway could be reopened.
The woman was removed by ambulance to hospital for assessment but was not seriously hurt.
A recovery vehicle was called to remove the car from the scene. Once debris had been cleared from the area the motorway was reopened with fire crews using their trucks to create a rolling road block to slowly allow traffic get back up to speed.