Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Woman swept away in her car by wave of slurry was lucky to escape the…
Poo-nami by david raleigh
CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK: Repair workers examine the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, yesterday after its two fingers and its head were chipped during recent lightning storms. More lightning rods are to be fitted to prevent future damage PICTURE: aP
Keep Dublin tidy – Please recycle this Metro Herald when you are finished with it
A MOTHER of three had a miraculous escape after an avalanche of slurry fell from a hilltop farm, sweeping her car into a field. As Joan McLoughlin, 62, was driving on the Cappamore to Doon road in East Limerick, an estimated 20,000 litres of slurry breached the retaining wall of a slurry tank on an overlying farm. It gained speed as it cascaded down the hill, then burst through the road’s embankment, picking up Mrs McLoughlin’s blue Ford Fiesta and dumping it in a nearby field. Speaking from their home in Cappamore, Mrs McLoughlin’s husband Hugh, said: ‘She could have been killed. I never saw anything like that in my life.’ A clean-up operation was ongoing yesterday involving Limerick City & County Council, Inland Fisheries Ireland and Limerick County Fire and Rescue Service. The incident occurred around 10pm on Monday. Mrs McLoughlin (pictured) could not speak to the press yesterday, with her husband saying: ‘She’s stressed out.’ Local man Pat Hoban was hailed a hero, after finding Mrs McLoughlin in the field. ‘I heard a lady screaming up the road, so I knew there was somebody in there,’ he told Limerick’s Live 95fm radio station. A hearse and another car which were travelling in front of Mrs McLoughlin avoided the spillage by just seconds. ‘The slurry has spilled into a flat area with relatively little [water] flow. We’re confident we can contain the spill by damming local drains,’ a council spokesman said.