Safety barriers should be installed at a popular city pier to prevent accidental drownings, a court has heard.
Gardaí and the Galway West Coroner have recommended the barriers as potential life-saving measures at Nimmo’s Pier.
The recommendation comes as Galway City Council this week agreed to instigate a comprehensive water safety audit – the first step in introducing new steps to protect people from accidentally falling into Galway’s wild waterways.
The plea also comes in the same week that Galway Harbour Company closed the slipway at Galway Docks to recreational water users in a bid to avoid an accident similar to the recent Buncrana tragedy.
The call for protective railings to be erected at the water’s edge in Claddagh came during the inquest of a city student, who accidentally walked off the pier and drowned days before last Christmas.
At the inquest into the death of Clare native, NUIG student Michael Bugler (20), Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin backed the recommendation of Garda Brendan Owens for the installation of safety barriers that might have prevented the tragedy.
It comes as a concerted political campaign to make the city’s waterways safe was ratcheted up a gear this week.
The local authority has agreed to urge all bodies with a responsibility for water in the city to facilitate a comprehensive citywide water safety audit.
For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune
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