Bus/ Luas crash at O’Connell St/ Abbey St. junction
roseannes | September 16, 2009
(Photo above by Dublin Blogger Dec)
There has been a crash between the Red Line Luas and a number 16 bus on O’Connell Street in the last half hour. You can get regular updates on Twitter (you don’t need to join to see these updates) and there has been some reporting on RTÉ News. According to the RTÉ website no injuries have been reported. However eye witnesses are reporting via Twitter that a number of ambulances are on the scene.
If you are planning a journey via O’Connel St. or Abbey St. today you would be advised to choose an alternate route. Also be aware that a crash like this will hold traffic up for some time on adjacent routes.
16:09 Further reports from the Irish Times. A number of injuries have been reported. Also hearing a lot of emergency services vehicles here on James St.
17:03 Dublin City Live Traffic Cameras seem to be unavailable to all the ghouls.
18:06 RTE 6 One TV news is reporting that 21 people were injured 3 of them seriously.
18:18: RTE 6 One reports that most people were walking wounded and the others had soft tissue injuries and fractures.
21:18: The Luas and Bus are still in place on O’Connell St. The investigators hope to be able to move them in the next couple of hours and open the street for tomorrow.
Wow. That is a very serious collision. I hope everyone is alright.
Sounds like some people were seriously injured and the luas driver had to be cut out of the wreck. When I was there everything seemed calm and there was no injured to be seen with lots of ambulances, gardai, firemen and luas staff around so it would appear whatever emergency plan the city has worked well.
That’s scary stuff, esp. in such a busy, pedestrianized area.
Not wanting to take away from the seriousness of the crash, but thats a woefully written article by TWO journalists in the Irish Times:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0916/breaking50.htm
was there when it happened but no one has mentioned anything about police car. bus stopped as a special branch car was driving wrong way up o connell street. no one is to blame but the police
I havent seen that mentioned anywhere even on the news. I hate to doubt you but surely someone would have said something about a car driving down the wrong way on O’Connell St???
There was 3 to 5 Gardi cars speeding down Abbey street away from oconnell prior to the collision. This was a couple of mins before. One unmarked Garda car was driving backwards towards O’Connell street on Abbey Street. Maybe the Gardai’s driving alarmed the bus driver and is why he broke the red light?
I think its all a bit fishy to be honest that this all occured within the same couple of minutes?
CIE claims that CCTV shows the Dublin Bus had a green light so if that is correct the problem might be with the lights for the tram or the controls of the tram. Looking at the accident the tram must have hit the bus at a relatively high speed. I doubt it could have reached that speed in the distance from a stop at the lights to the crash site so perhaps there was some mechanical failure on the tram or problem with the lights that gave both a green?
@aurora and @donna – Gardaà have appealed for witnesses so if you were there and you saw something that might be important you should contact the Gardaà on 1 800 666 111.
Correction – witnesses should contact Store St. Garda Station. See Garda.ie for all the details.
R
Video shot 45mins after collision.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pogZaFir3X8
Seems only fair to correct whats being blamed on the Gardai. There was an armed robbery on Abbey Street and as a result a number of Garda cars went through this junction TEN MINUTES before the collision (As can be seen on the CCTV). Therefore Aurora and Donna are incorrect in their anti-Garda presumptions and statements by blaming the Gardai for a LUAS mistake