The injuries were suffered when seven large panels from the Sandyford-bound tram were shattered, sending shards of glass on top of passengers in the front car.
“The impact was similar to something like a bumper car. A lot of people were standing and some of them were jolted forward,” Paul Barrett, a 24-year-old passenger from Mayo, told the Irish Times. “There was a woman and man at the very front with young kids; the glass seemed to come in on them most.”
Said 14-year-old Stephen Conkey from Swords, Co. Dublin: “At first we didn’t really know what had happened. You could feel a few bumps. But people stayed fairly calm, apart from one or two babies crying.”
Supt. Tom Conway of Pearse Street Garda Station said that the driver was taken to hospital suffering from shock, while a woman, her 3-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter were treated at the scene for cuts, bruises and shock.
The collision occurred when the tram leaving St Stephen’s Green switched to a parallel track, at a link point, as an incoming tram was approaching on that track. The front cars collided and scraped along each other before both came to a halt.
A spokesman for the Rail Procurement Agency said the linking mechanism, which allows trams to switch tracks, is controlled from the Red Cow depot.
The Sandyford Luas line, which opened in June to great fanfare, experienced three minor incidents during the summer. On one occasion the Luas left the track; on two others it hit a car.