Portlaoise man caught up in Liverpool parade horror crash

A PORTLAOISE man who was injured in the Liverpool parade horror crash has spoken of the distressing scenes he witnessed on the day.

Father of three Gary Hearns said that he along with his father-in-law Anthony Dunphy had flown over to see the title winning premiership match between Liverpool and Crystal Palace on the Sunday before the parade.

The next day, Bank Holiday Monday, both men had along with tens of thousands of other Liverpool supporters where they gathered to see the parade through Liverpool’s City Centre.

Taking up the story Gary, a life-long Liverpool supporter, said: “We flew into Chester that Sunday to see the match later in the day. The next day we went along to see the parade through the city. Everybody was in great mood and in high spirts. We saw the players as they passed by on the open deck bus.

“After it passed, I’d say about 20 minutes later at about 6pm, everyone was chanting, joking and signing and starting to make their way back home along The Strand out onto Water Street. We heard an ambulance siren that was heading our way making its way through the crowd. Then there was another sound of a car horn beeping.” 

“People parted on the road to make way for the ambulance when all of a sudden a car came along speeding. It stopped, reversed and sped on again driving in a zig-zag fashion. There was absolutely chaos. People were scrambling all over the place to try and get out of its way. The car clipped my side with its wing mirror as it sped by. I saw people being tossed in the air, bouncing off the car and saw a man being slammed on the bonnet of the car and someone dragged under it. There were women and children running for their lives,” said Gary.

Mr Hearns who works in Brown’s Gala shop along the Dublin Road opposite the church, said that Police, paramedics and fire crews were quickly on the scene and took the injured to a makeshift triage facility that was set up in a restaurant about a half-a-mile away from the crash scene.

“He said: “I was brought in and assessed. I had sustained bruised ribs, whiplash and have suspected nerve damage to my leg. I was released later that night.” 

“I was very lucky and so were so many other people. If the car had come at us earlier it would have ploughed straight onto us from behind as we all had been facing the other way looking at the open deck bus. Only for my father-in-law pushing me out of the way of the oncoming car, I’d say it could have been a lot worse for me. Someone must have been watching over me.” 

Mr Hearns said that shortly after the incident he had attempted to phone home to tell his wife that he was ok, but could not get a reception on his phone because the network was clogged up with so many other people ringing their loved one to inform them that they were safe.

He said: “It was the most terrifying incident I have ever seen. Thank god nobody was killed.” 

Both Gary and his father-in-law are due home to Ireland later today Wednesday 28 May.