Up to 60 vehicles involved in Kildare collisions

Motorway pile-up:A truck which crashed into the back of a car transporter started the collision which caused yesterday's pile-up on the M7 in Co Kildare.

The incident happened just before 9am when the lorry driver apparently failed to notice that the traffic in front had slowed down to a crawl because of dense fog. The lorry hit the car transporter causing another truck following behind to brake and swerve suddenly.

This vehicle collided with a car and forced it underneath the truck which had hit the transporter. The female driver of the car was seriously injured. The incident happened on the M7 just north of the Newhall junction.

Gardaí estimate that within moments, at least 16 separate collisions occurred on the M7 stretching back three kilometres.

A car rear-ended another and exploded into flames.

A woman driver is in a critical condition after her car went into the back of a fire engine which was speeding towards the scene of the initial accident.

She was in Naas General Hospital last night, having suffered the worst injuries in yesterday's crash.

The chaos spread to the M9 interchange with the M7, known as the Kilcullen bypass, when cars trying to get out on to the M7 braked suddenly causing two trucks to jack knife.

A cement lorry overturned on to a car, but the driver managed to walk away from the scene. Another 20 cars were damaged on the M9.

"It was utter, utter carnage and mayhem," said Sgt Gerry Goode, the division traffic sergeant for Carlow/Kildare who arrived on the scene within minutes of the first accident.

"It's an absolute miracle that there wasn't massive carnage because the potential was there. It's the biggest accident I've ever witnessed on a motorway in this country".

It is estimated that up to 60 vehicles were involved in yesterday's pile-up. Local breakdown service operator Tony Hennessy said he took in 16 cars, a motorbike, two vans and a lorry in the immediate aftermath of the accident.

"They were all smashed to bits. There are cars with front and back and sides all gone in, and wheels missing on others.

"When I got up this morning you couldn't see the road in front of you.

"There's always pile-ups on this road because people don't know how to drive it properly, but I've never seen anything this bad before".

Some 23 ambulances were on the scene quickly and 28 people were taken to hospital, most to Naas General Hospital where a major emergency plan was put into operation.

Six people were detained, one in a critical condition. A child was taken to Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.

The extent of the accident left motorists stranded for four hours in some cases and the closure of the motorway caused tailbacks on the M7 and the M9 stretching for 20 kilometres.