Keshcarrigan, Co Leitrim Source: Google Maps

A MAN WHO came to the aid of a young woman who had been involved in a car crash subsequently saw his car taken apart by emergency services.

But now a crowd-funding appeal looks set to make sure the man will not be significantly out of pocket.

Paul Egan from Sligo town chanced upon the scene of an accident at Keshcarrigan, Co Leitrim, on Friday 27 January, the Leitrim Observer reports.

The injured 18-year-old woman was standing on the road with the driver of the car and his brother when Egan arrived. She had been a back seat passenger when the car in which they had been travelling had struck a wall.

Egan, a HSE employee, observing the woman to be upset, helped her to his car and put her sitting inside it to escape the rainy conditions.

“I saw her standing on the side of the road and her left arm was sore,” Egan told the Leitrim Observer.

She was distressed and I offered her a seat in my car.

The woman then began to ‘lapse in and out of consciousness’.

When emergency services arrived, they informed Egan they would have to cut the injured girl from his car, which they duly did, first removing his boot and car doors, and finally cutting the roof from his 2008 Opel Astra so that she could be airlifted to hospital.

Emergency services can not be held liable for the destruction of personal property in emergency situations, meaning that Egan is now minus a car and reliant on the two insurance companies involved.

“Both insurance companies are passing the buck,” Egan, who is currently driving a rental car at his own expense, said.

Fortunately, the kindness of strangers looks set to come to Egan’s aid – a funding campaign set up by locals has already passed over €5,500 raised.

“This man should not be out of pocket for his good deed,” the fundraiser’s description reads.