A coroner has urged public bodies responsible for access to the Cork City quays to propose ways to prevent people contemplating suicide from being able to drive into the River Lee.
Cork City Coroner Philip Comyn said he wanted to highlight the issue of cars being driven into the river off unprotected quays such as Kennedy Quay and Horgan’s Quay, which are just downstream from the city centre.
He said he had recently contacted An Garda Síochána and was informed there had been six suicides and six attempted suicides since 2018 involving people driving their cars into the river from the unprotected quays.
“In this year alone I have heard three inquests regarding the quays in Cork,” he said, adding that among these was a case at Kennedy Quay where a woman drove into the river with two children in her car. The children were rescued, but the woman died, he said.
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Mr Comyn noted another inquest where a teenager had tried to dissuade his father from driving into the river at Horgan’s Quay, where there are no barriers or obstacles to prevent entry.
“Given the number of incidents here over a short period of time, I think it is incumbent on the local authority responsible for these quays, whether it be the Port of Cork or Cork City Council, not only to come up with plans to make these quays safer and to prevent incidents of this nature taking place, but also to ensure the plan is implemented without further delay,” he said.
Mr Comyn made his comments after hearing how a Ukrainian man (35) died after driving his car into the River Lee off Kennedy Quay early on March 2nd last. He had expressed suicidal thoughts some weeks previously, the court heard.
Garda Brian Crowley said he responded to a call from Ted Lane at the Port of Cork, who noticed car lights in the river off Kennedy Quay. When he attended at the scene, he saw a car on its roof in the water.
Garda Crowley later met Port of Cork staff in Tivoli and arranged for CCTV footage from cameras to be downloaded. This showed the car driving into the river at around 4.55am, he said.
The man was found in the driver’s seat of the vehicle following a recovery operation involving Cork City Fire Brigade, the Naval Service and volunteer search groups.
Dr Margot Bolster gave evidence of the postmortem conducted on the deceased at the Cork University Hospital morgue by Dr Asmaa Abdelsadek. This found that the man, who had cocaine in his system, died from acute cardio-respiratory failure due to drowning.
The man’s widow confirmed in her evidence that her husband was a recreational drug user and Dr Bolster said an effect of cocaine on the heart is that it speeds up the process of drowning. She said the man would not have suffered.
Mr Comyn said the case also highlighted the dangers of taking recreational drugs and the devastating impact this can have on families. He returned a verdict of death by suicide and extended his deepest sympathies to the man’s widow and young son on their loss.
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