A Co Tipperary builder yesterday pulled an injured driver to safety after two lorries which were involved in a head-on collision went on fire. The other driver was killed in the crash.
Mr Liam O'Meara was awakened by the crash at 4.30 a.m. yesterday and rushed from his home, near Toomevara, Co Tipperary, to find two trucks engulfed in flames.
"I heard someone shouting for help, but I could not see anyone, but then he called again and I saw him lying on the grass beside the blazing truck," Mr O'Meara said.
He dragged the injured man to safety.
The driver of the other vehicle, a bread lorry, died at the scene of the crash. He was named as Kevin Kelly (62), Maple Wood Drive, Springfield, Tallaght, Dublin. He was married with a young daughter and a grown-up family from a previous marriage.
The second vehicle was carrying steel girders from Limerick to Dublin when the collision occurred on the N7, a mile outside Toomevara on the Dublin side. The main Dublin-Limerick road was closed to traffic for most of yesterday as three cranes were brought in to remove the girders from the roadway. Council workers also had to repair damage done to the road surface by the heat of the fire.
The driver injured in the crash, Edward O'Halloran, Newtown shandrum, Charleville, Co Cork, was reported to be stable at Nenagh General Hospital yesterday. He received leg and arm injuries.