The woman knocked down by a car driven by the Fianna Fáil TD, Mr G.V. Wright, a week ago said last night her right leg was broken in four places as a result and she is concerned that she may lose it.
Mrs Anne Butler (50), a nurse, from the North Strand, Dublin, claimed in an interview with The Irish Times that the gardaí told her a number of men who arrived at the scene of the crash took the keys from Mr Wright's car.
A garda spokesman said last night that the force does not comment on individual cases.
The accident happened at around 7.30 p.m. last Thursday, around 50 metres from the North Strand Bowling Alley.
Mrs Butler said she was crossing the road to buy milk at a nearby shop when Mr Wright's car appeared over the hill at the railway tracks at the North Strand and struck her.
"He was absolutely flying. I saw him coming for me, I knew I had no chance. When you know something you know it, I thought I was dead. I thought I was going to end up in a mortuary. He was like a rocket, that's how I had no chance. I remember spinning up in the air. I came down off the bonnet and then onto the concrete. I was out for just a split-second or so. The fire brigade men said to me, 'Don't move because if you have any chest injuries . . . '
"My head was split, bleeding all the way down. They put me into one of those cages in case I had any spinal injuries. I couldn't really feel anything at that stage. I was crying and it was starting to drizzle rain. It wasn't quite dark, more of a twilight light."
Mrs Butler said her tibia was broken in two places and her fibula in two places. During seven days in the Mater Hospital she said she had been to the operating theatre twice, once for eight hours. "I can't manage crutches so they gave me a walking aid. I have two bolts, loads of screws and about 80 pins, and I really couldn't tell you how many stitches. I'll be 20 weeks like this.
"I am going to be very lucky if I don't lose this leg. I don't fancy walking around with a prosthesis for the rest of my life. I'm 50-years-old, I managed this far, I had to be 50 for an arsehole like that to knock me down."
Mrs Butler said she was disappointed Mr Wright had not contacted her since the accident, despite his apology yesterday.
She said she felt "absolutely wicked" for somebody to say publicy that he wished to apologise to the woman he knocked down but "I haven't heard a dickey bird. He didn't apologise, he made no effort to contact me, no card, no letter, no nothing.
"I'd say he should have paid a bit more attention to the Minister of Transport when he brought in the points system and said 'you do not drink and drive'. But when you have another doing it, that's it, it's a waste of time. This guy was loaded. What annoys me about these kind of people is that they have the money, park their car, get a taxi, then they're not doing anybody any harm."
Mrs Butler is married to a construction worker, Colm, and said she worked until two months ago in Sandymount.
