Broadcaster Gareth O'Callaghan is urging motorists to be careful on the roads as he recovers from a horror crash last year.

Mr O'Callaghan was involved in a collision on Horgan's Quay in Cork back in March.

He had arrived in the city on the train and his wife Paula picked him up.

He told The Pat Kenny Show his daughter, Emma, was also in the car.

"I remember looking into the back seat and Emma, our daughter, was adjusting herself in the back seat," he said.

"I said, 'Have you got your seatbelt on?' and she fat forward to show me.

"It was just at that precise moment that the car behind us impacted and rear-ended us.

"I've never experienced anything like it... it felt like an explosion, that's the only way I can describe it.

"Everything in the car shifted".

The car in the aftermath of the crash. Picture by: Facebook/Gareth O'Callaghan

Mr O'Callaghan suffered a broken back, additional injuries to this spine and some internal damage.

"I knew instantly my back had broken, and I had ruptured my right lung as well," he said.

"I thought I was having a heart attack because the pain was so severe, and I couldn't breathe because the lung had deflated - and at that stage I couldn't feel my legs.

"I remember thinking, 'This must be what it feels like in the final moments before you die' because I said to myself, 'I can't sustain this level of pain'".

Emergency services arrived and had to cut him from the car.

'It was less than a second'

Mr O'Callaghan said his seatbelt saved his life.

"It's the first thing the paramedics said to me: 'If you hadn't been wearing a seat belt, you would be somewhere up ahead in front of the car... there's no way you would not have gone out through the windscreen'" he said.

"The speed the impact took place, it was less than a second.

"The amount of energy that came through the car - the crash force as they call it - the amount of joules that were carried through as a result of the impact, that energy has to find a way to get out.

"It goes through you, and it will take you with it if you're not in a seatbelt.

"I cannot emphasise the importance of wearing a seatbelt".

'I wouldn't be talking to you'

Mr O'Callaghan said he is slowly recovering.

"Everything from the chest up is in relatively good working order," he said.

"Thankfully the head escaped any form of injury.

"Thankfully I was wearing a seatbelt; if I hadn't been I wouldn't be talking to you".

He said his leg is still causing him 'excruciating' pain.

"The nerves have been injured and inflamed.

"So, when they will recover, we don't know – hopefully they will.

"At the moment walking is not easy and the pain is excruciating," he added.

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Main image: Split-screen image shows Gareth O'Callaghan in recovery, and the car in the aftermath of the crash. Picture by: Facebook/Gareth O'Callaghan