A female driver had a miraculous escape from injury this afternoon when her car struck the left hand barrier and overturned on the busy Arklow to Gorey section of M11 at Clonough, between exits 21 and 22 on the southbound land.

The single vehicle incident occurred at 4.10 pm and the emergency services were called from Gorey and Arklow.

The crash was witnessed by a number of workers on the construction site of the new motorway service area.

Having located the upturned car fire personnel were amazed to find that the woman escaped free from injury and did not require hospitalisation.

“It looked very bad, but this time there was a happy ending. She was very lucky,” said a Garda spokesperson.

Diversions were immediately put in place, but the southbound lane reopened around 6 pm.