Dingle town closed as runaway truck smashes into shop

Tourists had a lucky escape in Dingle this afternoon when a truck crashed into a shop on one of the Co Kerry town's oldest streets.

The Kenmare Waste Disposal truck was on its way from upper Green Street, a narrow road, at about 1.30pm when it crashed.

The driver tried to warn people to get off the busy street by sounding his horn, gesturing and shouting, witnesses said.

At the end of Green Street, the refuse truck hit a wool shop, at the busy junction, and was partly embedded in it.

Gardaí are to examine the truck and the possibility the brakes failed.

Up to seven cars were damaged. Three people whose cars were struck by the truck were treated for minor injuries at the local health centre.

A two-year-old child in the back of a parked car was narrowly missed.

The driver was taken by ambulance to Kerry General Hospital in Tralee. he was not seriously injured.

A full technical examination was being carried out and the centre remains sealed off. "Normally the street . . . is choc-a-block at this time. Somebody was very lucky today," Sgt Noel Burke of Dingle Garda station said.