THE DRIVER of what was left of this mangled car wreck not only walked away from it but fled the scene sparking a day long garda search on Sunday last.

And the two occupants of the second car involved in the smash, while being removed to hospital, did not sustain life threatening injuries.

This was nothing short of a “miracle” according to witnesses at the scene. One Castleblayney firefighter told The Post: “I have had to cut people out of cars who were dead in vehicles that looked in far better shape than this one. The fact that the driver survived let alone managed to get out of the car and flee the scene is nothing short of a miracle.”

THE COLLISION occurred at Aghadreenan, Broomfield on the Main N2 Castleblayney/Carrickmacross Road at around 1.15pm. A foreign national with an address in the Clones area was later apprehended by gardai some five hours after the accident and three miles from the scene. He was apprehended after a garda helicopter dispatched from Dublin used heat seeking technology to locate him hiding in bushes on farmland between the Dundalk and Carrickmacross roads approximately 3.5 kilometres from Castleblayney town centre.

The man is to appear at Castleblayney District court on Monday next charged with road traffic offences in connection with the head-on car smash.

An Audi car traveling northwards attempted to overtake a line of three cars only to collide head on with an oncoming Ford Fiesta which was being driven in the opposite direction towards Carrickmacross.

Such was the impact that the offending Audi’s was reduced to the overturned twisted mass of wreckage as seen on our exclusive photograph. The car’s engine ended up on the roadside some distance away from the main wreckage.

Traveling in the fiesta was a northern couple who were both removed to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda. A motorist who came on the scene of Sunday’s accident told The Post: “Looking at the scene which confronted me and the mangled wreckage on the road I have to say that it was a miracle that nobody was killed.”