'I can't sleep at night because I'm thinking of the what-ifs': Calls for M20 after truck crashes into front garden
A lorry collided with the front of a property during the incident.
A CORK woman is calling for the M20 to be constructed as soon as possible after a truck crashed into the front garden of her family home along the current N20.
Early on Saturday morning, a truck crashed into Marie Harty’s front garden while she and her family slept.
At approximately 5:30 am, they were awoken to a loud noise outside the house.
“We were woken up to see this lorry and it was outside in our front. Halfway through the lawn,” she said.
Thankfully, Ms Harty said the driver was fine, but the truck had crashed into the front garden of the home and over the family’s trampoline and garden furniture, ending up roughly 2 meters in front of Ms Harty’s 18-year-old daughter’s bedroom.
“The truck seemed to have gotten underneath the trees and whatever and that seemed to have stopped it,” she said.
Even though her youngest is now 18, Ms Harty said her children still use the trampoline, stating that she can’t help but think about the “what-ifs”.
“They just to go out there and chill out for an hour, especially in the summer evenings. We were just very lucky. My husband was out here gardening during the lockdown. He spent a lot of time out there gardening.
Ms Harty’s home is located on the current N20 between Charleville and Buttevant and this was not the first time a vehicle crashed into the family home.
21 years ago, there was a similar incident as a car “tumbled” into the garden after skidding on ice.
“It was the first time it had happened, and the car actually hit the house that time.”
Nonetheless, on Saturday morning Ms Harty had not expected to see a truck in her front garden.
“Because it hasn’t happened in so long, you kind of say ‘oh yeah, that’s only a truck’ or ‘that’s only a trailer passing’ but when I came out my bedroom door, I was greeted by my daughter and she was woken up as well because she sleeps in the front of the house.”
Following the incident on Saturday morning, Ms Harty is calling for the proposed M20 Cork to Limerick motorway to be implemented as soon as possible.
The preferred route option for the motorway is due to be selected later this year.
While she understands where some residents who oppose the motorway are coming from with concerns about dividing communities and land, she said it is a matter of “life or death”.
“I get where they’re coming from but it’s just when it comes to life or death.”
She said someone was looking over her family on Saturday morning.
Gardaí confirmed that they attended the scene of a road traffic collision at Lisballyhea in Charleville, Cork on Saturday, 19 June at approximately 5.40 am.
“A lorry collided with the front of a property during the incident and damage was caused but no injuries to persons were reported,” a spokesperson said.
App?
