Sharlene Gill’s 17-hour Glenshane nightmare
An Inishowen woman, who was stranded on the Glenshane Pass for 17 hours in extreme snow storms last week has described her terrifying ordeal “like something you’d see in a movie.”
Sharlene Gill, from Lisfannon, was one of 300 people who had to be rescued after exceptionally heavy snow and plummeting temperatures left motorists – which included a bus full of students from St Johnston – unable to proceed on the road between Derry and Belfast.
Ms Gill, who works in Belfast for Powerteam Electrical Services, was making her way home to Inishowen when the previously calm weather took a dangerous turn for the worse.
Speaking to the “Inish Times,” she described the “scary’ turn of events.
“I left Belfast at around 5.30pm. At that stage the weather was grand, there was no snow the whole way up the road. I’d gone through the Glenshane Pass earlier that morning and it was fine.
“There was no snow at all until I got to the bottom of Glenshane but the traffic was moving up it grand so I went on ahead.”
Ms Gill’s brother William, a lorry driver, was also making the journey from the other side of the mountain.
“At around 6pm, I was talking to William on the mobile phone and he said the traffic was moving so I kept on going. Then the weather just got worse and worse, the snow was getting really heavy and as I drove to the top of the Glenshane Pass it started to get very scary. I got into the outside lane and was moving ok but when I got near the top the traffic had slowed down and I could sense something was really wrong. It was bumper to bumper and the snow was really, really bad.
“My car’s a rear wheel drive and I knew that with the weather being the way it was, if I stopped for any length of time I’d find it hard to get going again but the traffic had just stopped completely. I thought at the back of my mind that maybe someone had got stuck up ahead and they were working to get them out. No-one knew at that stage what was happening but it never crossed my mind that I could be there for the night.”
However, the weather and road conditions were becoming increasingly dangerous.
“William then rang me, it was around 6.30 at this stage and said two lorries had jack-knifed up ahead. At that stage I knew it was definitely not good, it was starting to get dark and I could see flashing blue lights up ahead. Then I heard from William that it was unsafe to move the lorries. He was stranded on the other side. At that stage I knew I was there for the night.”
As darkness fell, temperatures plummeted to -12 and the snow continued to fall during the night – almost reaching the height of Sharlene’s car bonnet.
“I’ve never, ever seen snow like it; it was rising higher and higher,” she explained.
“It was honestly like something you’d see in a movie.”
“Mountain Rescue came on the scene around 11.30pm and they moved a lot of people. There was an elderly couple ahead of me and they couldn’t walk in the snow it was that deep so they had to be stretchered away.”
A number of motorists opted to stay with their cars, as did Sharlene as it contained many items from work.
“I was grand but it was very eerie. The phone coverage went in the middle of the night so I couldn’t call anyone. At around 7.00am there was just complete and utter silence. The Police and Mountain Rescue were more than good and came to check on me a number of times during the night. There wasn’t much anybody could do; we just had to sit it out. It was so cold and the weather was that bad no-one wanted to get out of their cars so we were all kind of on our own.”
At 11.00am the next morning, a recovery vehicle pulled up alongside Sharlene and its driver offered to help her make her way down the mountain. She finally arrived back in her Lisfannon home around 12.00 noon the next day – almost 19 hours after leaving Belfast.