A mother has said "guardian angels" were with her son after he survived a head-on crash on the M50 that left eight teenagers injured. Craig Fox, 22, was driving his Skoda Fabia when a Toyota Yaris carrying the teenagers struck his vehicle in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The collision happened at around 5.30am on the M50 in Dublin near Junction 12, Firhouse. The Toyota, which was allegedly stolen, is believed to have travelled the wrong way down a slip road. All nine people were taken to hospital, with a 13-year-old passenger from the Yaris left with critical, life-threatening injuries. Police are investigating the incident.
Miraculous escape
Craig, an apprentice electrician, was left with internal bleeding and severe shock. His mother, Sarah Jane Fox, said it was a miracle he walked away from the crash. Speaking on the Neil Prendeville Show, she said: "There were guardian angels with my child on Sunday morning. It's the only thing I can tell you how he walked out of that car."
Despite his injuries, Craig immediately checked on the others involved. His mother said: "He walked out of that car and checked on the other kids. He was asking how they were." Doctors found internal bleeding, but he avoided emergency surgery.
Stable condition
Sarah Jane updated well-wishers on Craig's condition: "Craig is doing well at the moment. He's stable. He had some internal bleeding yesterday, but it stopped without surgery, which was a relief. He's sitting up talking, but he is sore all over, which is expected. He was hit head-on at 100 kilometres an hour. So he's in shock as well."
Craig called his mother from a police officer's phone after his own handset flew out of the car during the impact. She said: "Craig rang me at 5.32am from a police officer's phone. He couldn't find his phone. We realised then it had flown out of the car when it was spinning. He rang me from the police officer's phone, and I got into my car and was across the M50 as quickly as I could."
Investigation launched
Reflecting on the scene, Sarah Jane said: "It was like a clown car with eight children coming out of it. The kids were on the ground with ambulance men everywhere. My child is alive and he's lucky, but there has to be consequences for someone for what's happened." The police watchdog Fiosrú has launched an independent investigation into the crash.
