“It was like bombs went off inside the bus”.
That’s how the driver of the City Direct vehicle struck by stones earlier this week sums up the latest attack.
It happened at about 10:30pm on Monday night as the bus was on the KK2 route travelling from Purcellsinch and heading for the Johnswell road roundabout. But the windows were struck at the Hebron Road Roundabout, for the fourth time in recent months.
Driver Gerry Watson summed up his experience on KCLR by saying “There was two massive explosions in the bus, and I mean they were massive, they were very loud, thankfully there was no-one on it but the fright that I got was unreal, it’s hard to explain, it just was like bombs went off inside in the bus”
He added “Now that we’re leaving to come into that roundabout when we’re driving we just have the fear that there’s something going to happen, we’re always aware that someone’s going to come from some direction towards us with flying objects, thankfully the other night there I was on my own, I had no passengers but one of these days there’s going to be a serious accident on that roundabout”.
Divisional Roads Garda Inspector Paul Donohoe agrees, telling KCLR “It’s really getting out of hand and it’s frightening for those bus drivers, and other motorists and truck drivers”.
He adds “We are actively looking to catch these people doing this and will work until we get them, to get the safety of our bus drivers and we would be delighted if the public would help us to stop this because it’s just so dangerous and someone will be seriously injured if not killed from an accident or like that someone driving any car that a windscreen was smashed like that with stone, it scares me to think what could happen”.
Earlier, Kilkenny Mayor John Coonan warned that the service could be in jeopardy if the vandalism continues – read that here.
