Two separate investigations began yesterday into the cause of a collision between a milk tanker and a train, in which the driver of the tanker was seriously injured.
The collision occurred shortly before 9 a.m. at an unmanned level crossing at Woodfield, Dromkeen, 10 miles from Limerick city.
Mr P.J. Bourke (45), of Oola, Co Tipperary, a relief driver with Dairygold Co-Op, was on his way to make a milk collection from a farm 200 yards from the manually-operated crossing.
Within hours of the accident, investigations had been set up by the Garda at Roxboro Road station, Limerick, and by Iarnrod Eireann under the direction of the district manager, Mr Brian Kelly.
According to Iarnrod Eireann, the 5,000-gallon milk tanker was in collision with the first carriage of the train, the engine having already passed the level crossing. Fire brigade officers using heavy equipment freed Mr Bourke, who appeared unconscious, from the cab. He was said to be in a serious condition at Limerick Regional Hospital last night.
The train had been due to connect with the Dublin-Cork train at Limerick Junction. The front door of the carriage was pitched into the train, which was not derailed.
None of the 32 passengers was seriously injured, although some received slight cuts from flying glass and were attended by a doctor at Limerick Junction, where the train proceeded after some delay.
The driver of the train, Mr Pat O'Regan (60), of Cratloe, Co Clare, was not injured.
A spokesman for Iarnrod Eireann said the driver sounded the siren of the engine when he saw the tanker, slowed and stopped a short distance away.
The gate leading to the crossing was open and the cabin of the vehicle was pitched on to the surrounding railings free of the track. Mrs Breda Hourigan and Mr Jack Ryan, who live on farmsteads near the crossing, were the first to arrive on the scene.
They held the injured driver, who was half out of the cab and unconscious, until the ambulance arrived. Mrs Hourigan said: "I had just finished milking the cows when I heard an awful bang at about 10 minutes to nine. The dogs were barking and I ran down to the railway line a short distance away." She said that Mr Ryan, on his mobile telephone, called the ambulance.
Both Mr Ryan and Mrs Hourigan said that the level crossing had been the source of local agitation for many years to have it manned. Mr Ryan pointed out a bend on the approach to the crossing from both sides and said it took only five seconds for the train to reach the crossing from either point.
Mr Bourke is prominent in local GAA circles as an administrator and trained the Limerick football team for some years.
In 1986 a nine-year-old son of Mr Bourke was one of two boys killed on the main road within a few miles of yesterday's accident, which is half-a-mile off the main Tipperary road.