Hapless Shane Ross bungles well wishes to Minister hit by car cycling

Minister for Transport Shane Ross looked like he had suffered an injury in his 'bus selfie' and now he has fluffed his lines after a fellow minister was hit by a car while cycling.

With his fellow Government minister Denis Naughten just discharged from hospital having been knocked from his bike by a car, Minister for Transport Shane Ross seems to have missed the message in the incident.

Naughten was out cycling with his wife early on Monday afternoon on a stretch of road between Roscommon town and Fuerty when he was hit by a motorist driving a car.

The impact threw him off his bike and he was taken to hospital from the scene.

Naughten - who is Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment - was taken by ambulance to Portiuncula Hospital in Galway.

He spent two nights being treated there, with a back injury apparently his main area of concern, before being discharged earlier today.

Naughten's injuries are not life threatening and his wife was not injured in the incident. The Minister is expected to take a short time at home further recovering before returning to work.

The exact circumstances of the collission should be determined when the Garda inquiry into the crash is completed.

However, displaying the haplessness that has characterised his time at the Cabinet table to date, Minister for Transport Shane Ross has used very unfortunate phraseology in wishing Naughten well.

He took to Twitter this evening to wish his fellow Independent ministerial colleague well and a speedy recovery "after his accident on a bicycle".

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He then completed his brief message: "See you back in action next week!"

Wishing my Independent cabinet colleague @DenisNaughten rapid recovery after his accident on a bicycle . See you back in action next week!

— Shane Ross (@Shane_RossTD) January 5, 2017

The use of the word 'accident' will be interpreted by many as Ross downplaying - perhaps inadvertently, to be fair - Naughten being knocked from his bike by a car on a main road.

How he knows it was an “accident” – rather than due to poor road user behaviour or some other factor – is a mystery.

There is no mention at all of the motorist or car; it's as if Naughten fell from the bike and injured himself with nobody else involved.

Had Naughten had been walking at the time and been hit by a car necessitating his dispatch to hospital for several days treatment it's hard to imagine Ross wishing him well after his "accident while walking" while asserting with certainty he'd soon be back at work.

Whether intentional or not, his dismissing the “accident” as if it was nothing, or at least very little, to worry about is an interesting insight into the mind of the man responsible for road safety in the Republic.

It follows a Tweet in recent days containing a selfie taken as he traveled to work by bus in which he looked as if he were in physical pain and leading to derision from many social media users.