Miah Lynch holds up the now empty sandbag which smashed into the windscreen of one of his vehicles in the early hours of the morning. Photo by Dermot Crean
A FATHER and son were lucky to escape serious injury or worse, when two large sandbags smashed into the windscreen of their truck and into the top of the cab, while travelling under the overpass on the Tralee/Killarney Road a few miles from Farranfore.
The incident occurred at around 2am when a Miah Lynch Delivery Services truck – with Tim Hartnett and his son Darragh from Ballinorig in the cab – was travelling towards Killarney.
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The overpass a few miles from Farranfore where the incident took place.
Two sandbags were thrown at the truck, with one coming through the windscreen and the other hitting the top of the cab. Miraculously, the driver and passenger were unhurt, but badly shaken by the incident, while there was substantial damage done to the vehicle.
Miah Lynch was shocked and angry that this mindless act of vandalism took place.
The damage to the windscreen and top of the cab of the truck. Photo by Dermot Crean
Speaking from the company premises this morning, the Strand Road native showed TraleeToday.ie the damage to the truck and told us of the shock his employees felt at the incident.
“Tim the driver, came down to me this morning and said ‘Miah, thank God my son and I are alive’,” said Miah who employs 24 people at the Monavalley business.
“At the end of the day I could have lost a father and son just going to work last night. It’s hard times when you can’t get out of bed to make a living and you have these scumbags waiting on a bridge to throw a bag of sand down on top of a vehicle. If people are out at that hour of the morning looking to cause trouble…I don’t know,” said Miah, clearly angry at what happened.
Damage to the truck.
There have been previous reports of eggs and more recently, stones being thrown at vehicles from the bridge, but this is a huge escalation of this dangerous, mindless vandalism. There are no lights on the overpass making it impossible for motorists to identify who did this at night.
Miah Lynch is putting up a substantial reward for information which leads to the capture of the person or persons responsible.
Gardaí are investigating the incident.
