Inquest hears how mother and daughter lost lives in flood

A BRAVE six-year-old boy desperately sought help after he was pushed clear from a four-wheel drive jeep swept away in a raging river flood that claimed the lives of his mother and sister.

A drenched Fionn O’Driscoll was found by a passing motorist on a roadway close to Coomhola, near Bantry, where mother Orla, 34, and her three-year-old daughter Mura, drowned in a mountain stream crossing.

An inquest yesterday returned verdicts of accidental deaths following the tragedy last September.

Schoolboy Fionn, in an interview with gardaí, said his mother helped him out the side window of the Mitsubishi jeep that lost control crossing a nine-feet wide concrete ford on the Derryfuff tributary of the Coomhola River.

Supt Liam Horgan, who read out the memo taken by gardaí from the boy, the sole survivor, said his father Finbarr had phoned his mother to warn her of the floods, about two miles before the crossing.

“Mum answered the phone from dad at Teddy O’Brien’s shop at Coomhola. There was no flooding on the road at that time,” Fionn said in an interview.

“We came around the corner at the bridge. Mum told us to hold tight that we were going to cross the stream. We made it a little way across. The jeep moved. It then went on its side. It then went against the rock. Mum helped me out of the widow of the jeep. I walked along the top of the jeep and got out on the bank.

“My sister was too scared to come with me.”

Fionn said his mother told him to go and get help. The boy race up to Gerard O’Sullivan’s house but there was nobody there. When he returned to the flooded stream, the jeep was overturned, upside down.

Two sisters, Vicky and Claire Flynn later picked up Fionn on the roadway. Their father, Neilus Flynn, travelling behind, went to the crossing. There was no sign of the jeep and he saw Finbarr O’Driscoll on the other side.

The two could not hear each other because of the noise from the flood water.

In a phone conversation with his son a few minutes later, Mr O’Driscoll was told that his wife and daughter were “lost on the river”.

In a statement read to the inquest, electrician Mr O’Driscoll said he remained at home that day because he was sick. His wife had taken their children to Bantry in the morning.

“It was raining that morning but got heavier during the day,” he said. “At 2pm, I rang Orla on her mobile. She was around Snave, Ballylickey, and I told her it had been raining heavy. I told her to be careful. I said there would be a good flood in the stream leading to the house.”

Mr O’Driscoll said at 2.25pm, he went down to the stream that was in a huge flood, the biggest he ever witnessed.

A barrel placed at the ford, which was used to gauge water levels, showed the flood waters to be eight inches over the top. Five days earlier, the waters were halfway up the barrel.

Mr O’Driscoll said: “I did not see anybody. I went back to the house to get a camera. I assumed Orla had returned to Bantry.”

Garda William Nyhan, who conducted an investigation, told coroner Dr Colum Quigley that the concrete ford was the only crossing to the O’Driscoll home at Milleens.

He said heavy rain of 27.3 millimetres fell that day but over a five-day period from the previous Sunday, the rainfall had averaged 10.4mm daily.

He said the body of little Mura was found by searcher Fintan Meaney at 5.45pm about a quarter of a mile downstream while Orla O’Driscoll was discovered by Stephen Lucey farther downriver at 6.30pm.

A garda PSV inspector, sergeant Pat Donovan, said the roof panel of the silver jeep was crushed down 16 inches. The vehicle, located 200 metres from the crossing, was in good condition before the accident, he said.

The damage was caused by being swept along in a torrent of water.

Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said both victims died from acute cardio respiratory failure due to drowning.

Mr O’Driscoll and family members attended the inquest. Solicitor Nancy O’Driscoll, in a statement on behalf of the O’Shea and O’Driscoll families, acknowledged the great efforts and kindness of the many people and organisations that assisted during the dark days since the tragic accident.

An ESB plant manager, Liam Buckley, told the inquest that a hydro-electric plant upstream - which had a dam - would not have affected water levels in the stream.