“It’s just one of those things that you don’t expect to happen.”
A golf ball flying your way while driving along the M8?
Definitely one of those things that you don’t expect to happen.
And yet, one man in Cork had a near-miss of the kind usually associated with fairways and putting greens, only on a busy motorway.
Speaking to Patricia Messinger on C103’s Cork Today show on Monday, photographer and historian Bill Power recalled the bizarre incident, noting that he had a “close call.”
The Mitchelstown native was on the M8 travelling at over 120 kilometres per hour between Fermoy and Cork, keeping his eyes on the road while overtaking, when a “white object” suddenly flew across the barrier from the opposite side.
“It crossed in front of the car ahead of me and bounced on the road in front of me,” said Bill. “I thought it was going to go through my windscreen.
“It then proceeded to bounce under my car, so it was literally just a few seconds in the difference of it hitting my windscreen or going underneath the car.”
Bill explained that it all unfolded in approximately two seconds, and that he quickly realised that the object in question was a golf ball.
“I have no idea idea where it came out of,” he admits. “I have no idea of what damage it may or may not have done behind me, but I certainly had a close call.”
Messinger enquired as to the whereabouts of any nearby golf course of driving range.
“Well, either they’re very bad golfers or very good golfers in Fermoy because there is, but I honestly don’t think that anybody could drive a ball as far as the M8 from the golf course in Fermoy in fairness to them,” laughed Bill.
A Facebook post the following day on Bill’s page led to others recalling similar occurrences around the country involving golf balls, glass bottles and bricks being thrown at cars on motorways.
“It’s one thing to have your car or truck damaged, but the potential consequence of doing something stupid like that is that one or several person’s lives at possibly at risk,” he said.
You can listen to the full interview below.
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