Car crashed through fence of Laois resident's home

An 80-year-old Laois resident has serious concerns for her safety after a car crashed through her fence, the most recent in an ongoing, distressing, and costly series of road accidents outside her home.

The car crashed through the boundary fencing of Catherine McCann’s home, coming to a halt in her yard, at the Blackhall Bridge junction, Portarlington.

The frightening incident occurred on September 5, 2026 at approximately 9:30pm when a car travelling from the Canal Road crossed the T-junction intersection with the Portlaoise Road and crashed.

A neighbour heard the crash and arrived first at the scene. When her dog began barking, Ms McCann came outside to find the car on her property, with her fence, along with electrical wires and a metal road sign constructed by Laois County Council, torn down.

According to Ms McCann, a friend of the driver arrived and pulled the car out with a rope. They left shortly after. Emergency services attended the scene, and gardaí investigations are ongoing.

Ms McCann is 80 and lives near Blackhall Bridge, a disused canal bridge and local landmark. Her home is situated at the intersection of the Canal Road and the Portlaoise Road, a busy T-junction between Portarlington and Portlaoise. The home has been in Ms McCann’s family for three generations and since before the Canal Road was constructed.

This collision is the most recent incident in a long history of collisions, near misses. and dangerous driving at the Canal Road / Portlaoise Road junction, Ms McCann says.

Ms McCann recalled how she previously had a hedge at her boundary, which vehicles drove through on several occasions.

“It was everybody doing it, it was professional people, and it was even during the daytime,” she said. “I got a professional fence put up, because I had to, no matter what it cost. Because, you know, I thought it might stop things happening and keep me safe, and keep my family safe as well.”

Ms McCann also built concrete blocks a short distance behind the timber fence. Recalling the September incident, she said: “It was only them blocks that stopped him going another depth and he was dead. Imagine waking up to that and thinking about: ‘Jesus that man died at my fence.’ We all get old, and we all think we can forget these things, but you can’t.”

“I just look at the traffic even recently, and they passing each other by, and they’re going at full speed. And I just shake my head, and I just shiver, and I just say: something’s going to happen soon.”

The speed limit on the Canal Road is 80kmph, but, Ms McCann says, “it’s immaterial. Because they’re coming from the town, which is a long stretch of road, and they will just go at whatever speed they want.”

She continued: “The minute they come up to that junction, if they’re not properly slowed down by some means or other [...] they’re going to go right across the road.”

Ms McCann has also suffered financial losses as a result of this incident and previous incidents. While the emergency services explained how she could apply for assistance to make the repairs, Ms McCann made the repairs herself, stating she could not wait for the request to be processed due to the risks of leaving her home exposed.

Following the collision, Portarlington Cllr Aidan Mullins met with council staff at the junction. He also raised the issue at the October meeting of Graiguecullen/Portarlington Municipal District, where he said: “I think there’s recognition that intervention is necessary here.”

The council is currently reviewing the existing road safety arrangements at the junction. It is considering line marking improvements and additional standard and digital signage. The council will also make an application to the Department of Transport to secure funding for a road safety scheme.