Over 40 people including a former TD were last night rushed to hospital after a bus carrying a group of women on a social outing collided with a number of cars in Cork city yesterday evening
Some 30 emergency services personnel including firefighters and ambulance crews were involved in the rescue operation after the bus collided with several cars on Wellington Road shortly after 8pm.
Among those injured in the collision was former Cork North Central Progressive Democrats TD Máirín Quill, whose car was among those hit by the bus and who was removed to hospital with a suspected broken leg.
Ms Quill - a member of Cork City Council - lives on Wellington Road and is understood to have been driving home when the collision occurred.
It is also understood that the group of women - members of St Finbarr's social club from the southside of the city - were travelling on the bus when it collided with a car after coming off Military Hill on to Wellington Road.
The party - who range in age from their 50s to their 80s - were due to go for a meal at the Ambassador Hotel on Military Hill when the privately-owned bus collided with up to five cars on Wellington Road before crashing into a tree and an ESB pole. Three units of Cork City Fire Brigade had to use cutting equipment to reach some of the passengers in the bus which was badly damaged.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) South dispatched six ambulances along with two rapid response vehicles staffed by doctors who assessed the injured at the scene.
According to a HSE South spokeswoman, nobody was seriously injured in the crash but all were brought to Cork University Hospital for assessment.
Gardaí closed off Wellington Road following the collision to allow evacuation of the injured.
Garda forensic crash investigators carried out an examination of the scene while Garda PSV inspectors began examination of the bus.
