Andrew Carey
LIVES would be saved from the river Shannon if there were vital throwing lines or ring buoys placed on the bridges in the city, a Limerick councillor said. Cllr Sean Lynch (FF) has called for immediate action to be taken so that “lives can be saved in these very unfortunate circumstances”.
“The response from the rescue crews assigned to the River Shannon is excellent and the work they do, along with the search teams, is of an undoubted benefit to the people afflicted”, he said. Sean Lynch, but the newly elected councillor and former garda has gone a step further and called for the life saving equipment to be installed immediately.
“There are incidents occurring at the river and often people who are in dire need of help, have second thoughts about actions they take and regret what they are doing. I have heard of this first hand and most recently, I know of one case where a man jumped off the bridge and obviously changed his mind. Another man came on the scene but was unable to help as the nearest ring buoy was on the quayside and too far away.”
Cllr Lynch has said that if the life saving equipment was there, “things could be different in some of these tragic cases”.
In recent months, the number of incidents at the River Shannon have seen an increase but intervention and assistance will see this number plateau and even fall should a number of measures be adopted according to the councillor.
A spokesperson for Limerick City and County said that up to now, the authority has not put lifebuoys on the bridges.
“If a proposal was brought to Council, it would be considered, but we would have to talk to the Transportation and Infrastructure Department about whether or not this would be feasible taking into consideration the fact that some of the bridges are protected structures.”
