A FOUR month old baby survived a horrific crash involving a car and a lorry outside Carrickmacross on Wednesday morning. The baby’s mother also emerged unscathed from the wreck of the Audi A4, which was travelling towards Carrickmacross when it collided with a rigid truck at Lisnashannagh on the N2 Carrickmacross Bypass. The accident occurred on the straight of the road and only yards from the spot where a local motorcyclist was killed approximately 18 months ago.

Such was the impact of Wednesday morning’s smash that the car was severely damaged whilst the lorry, which was en route from Donegal to Dublin, overturned and shed its load of scaffolding along the roadside. Both vehicles ended up approximately 100 yards apart. The lorry, having overturned, righted itself again before coming to rest having hit an embankment.

Gardai and two units of Carrickmacross Fire Brigade attended the scene. Firemen used cutting equipment to free the occupants of the car. The mother and baby travelling in that vehicle sustained only slight injuries and suffered shock. The male driver of the car, a foreign national, sustained very serious injuries to one hand, whilst the driver of the truck sustained only minor injuries. All four were removed by ambulance to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.