Three people including a child had been rushed to hospital following a collision between a bus and a car on a motorway in Co Clare.
The collision occurred at around 8.00pm in the southbound lanes of the M18 motorway between Clarecastle and Dromoland.
It’s understood that a car travelling towards Limerick attempted to avoid a tyre lying in the carriageway and was struck from behind by the bus.
Two adults and a child, who had been travelling in the car, have been hospitalised with ‘varying degrees of injury’.
Collision on M18/N18 between J11 – DROMOLAND and J12 – KILLOW (North) (11-Mar 20:10) https://t.co/nYOqNCZue6
— TII Traffic (@TIITraffic) March 11, 2018
Units of the fire brigade from Ennis and Shannon along with several ambulances and Garda patrols responded to the incident.
There were 33 passengers on board the bus however despite original reports of multiple injuries, no one the bus was hurt.
The passengers were checked by paramedics but remained on the bus until a replacement vehicle was brought to scene to taken them to their destination.
Fire crews implemented emergency traffic management procedures at the scene and managed to get the lengthy backlog of vehicles moving slowly again.
The route was fully reopened shortly after 10.30pm.