A three-year-old girl has died after sustaining catastrophic injuries in a horrific crash on the M20 near Patrickswell, Co Limerick.
The girl’s twin brother who was also traveling in the car, was taken by ambulance from the scene to University Hospital Limerick, where his condition is believed to be stable.
The boy is said to have sustained “minor head and facial injuries”.
The twins’ mother who was driving the car is understood to have swerved to avoid another vehicle, travelling in the opposite direction of the motorway, after it had mounted the road’s central reservation barriers.
This car ended up crashing into the steel pole barriers separating the northbound and southbound lanes of the motorway.
The car carrying the two children and their parents “went into a barrel role” according to sources at the scene before coming to a rest on its roof.
The young girl was “ejected” from the car and was crushed in the wreckage, sources added.
Emergency first responders performed CPR on the toddler in their best efforts to save her, however she was pronounced dead at UHL tonight.
The deceased girl’s parents and brother are being treated in hospital for minor injuries and shock.
It is believed the car that crashed onto the central reservation steel pole barriers had swerved to avoid a third car.
Three people from the car on the central reservation were also removed to hospital, and their injuries are not thought to be life threatening.
No one else was seriously injured in the incident.
The collision occurred around 5pm.
According to a sources the little girl suffered catastrophic head injuries in the crash after been ejected from her child seat as her family car rolled over a number of times before coming to a halt on its roof.
Sources also said the children’s mother was driving the car and is believed to have swerved to avoid another car traveling in the opposite direction crashed through the central reservation barrier.
“The girl was in the back seat. When the car swerved it was put into a barrel role. The child was ejected from the car and there on from her child seat. The car came to a stop on top of the child.”
“The girl suffered massive head trauma. The child’s mother and father and her twin brother were not seriously injured. The boy has minor head injuries. They are all massively shocked, naturally.”
“There were two or three people in the car that mounted the central reservation. They were not seriously injured.”
Both the northbound and southbound lanes of the motorway are closed between the Adare and Patrickswell interchanges.
Diversions are in place which is causing severe traffic tailbacks.
Gardaí have closed the section of the motorway where the crash occurred, for a technical examination of the scene by officers from the Garda collision Investigation unit.
