Elderly woman seriously injured when hit by Garda patrol car

A woman in her 70s was seriously injured when hit by a Garda patrol car in Dublin yesterday.

The accident, which was being investigated by gardaí last night, happened outside Vergemount hospital in Clonskeagh shortly before 4pm.

Eyewitnesses said the elderly woman was crossing the road when the Garda car approached the bend. Nick O'Halpin, who lives at the scene of the accident, and who called the ambulance, said the siren had been on and the car "must have been going at some speed". Other residents also reported hearing the siren.

The car hit the woman and then mounted the bench of a bus shelter opposite the hospital entrance, crashed through the glass at the back of the shelter and pulled the roof down. Shards of glass were scattered over a large area and pieces of the car were also thrown some distance.

The injured woman was thrown through the shelter and, according to Mr O'Halpin, was "in a crumpled heap" on the pavement when he came out to the road.

A Garda spokesman would only confirm the accident had happened and that the car was being driven by a female garda. Another female garda was also in the car.

The stretch of road where the accident happened is a wide, sweeping bend on a hill. The road was wet throughout the day due to intermittent heavy showers.

Mr O'Halpin was in his house when he heard "a crash, like rumbling thunder, very, very loud. I saw the car up on the shelter and the woman lying on the ground there behind the shelter. I ran back inside and called the ambulance. It took me about five minutes to get through and then it seemed to take about 25 minutes for the ambulance to get here.

"There were people everywhere, trying to help. A fire-brigade arrived and the woman garda was led away in tears."

The elderly woman was taken to St Vincent's Hospital where her condition was being assessed last night.

Mr O'Halpin said it was "not the first time that an accident has happened here". Other neighbours also said the stretch was prone to accidents.

"My car was mangled parked just here," said one woman a few feet from the bus shelter. "And the little trees are constantly being destroyed. I think they have given up planting trees."

Just before 6.30pm, the car was removed by a Garda recovery team and taken away for forensic examination "to a secure location".

The road was cordoned off for about three hours and electricity was cut off in the area for a time while the Garda car was removed, due to concerns about electric power in the shelter causing an accident.