Mother, child drown as jeep washed away

A MOTHER and her young daughter were drowned yesterday when their jeep was washed off a bridge into a flooded river at the entrance to their west Cork farm as they were returning home from a children’s party.

Flash floods claimed the lives of Orla O’Driscoll of Derryduv, Coomhola, Bantry, and her three-year-old daughter, Muire. The woman’s young son, Fionn, six, escaped from the torrent but failed in his attempts to snatch his sister to safety.

The dead woman’s husband Finbarr O’Driscoll was last night being treated for severe trauma.

The tragedy unfolded shortly before 3pm as Mrs O’Driscoll was driving home with her children at Derryduv, six miles from Bantry off the Kilgarvan road.

As she was crossing a concrete ford over a tributary of the Coomhola River, at the entrance to the family farm, flood waters, which were three feet above the surface of the bridge, swept the four wheel drive pick-up into the raging torrent.

Mrs O’Driscoll, who was in her 30s, managed to get her son out of the jeep. She then tried to pass her daughter to him, but the vehicle was carried too fast downstream.

The young boy then ran one mile down the boreen where he was picked up by a passing motorist who returned to the scene but could find no trace of the jeep.

It was at that point that the alarm was raised and a major search got under way involving Civil Defence and Fire Brigade personnel, the Bantry Inshore Search and Rescue Association, gardaí and locals. A coastguard helicopter flew from Shannon to assist, but later returned due to appalling weather conditions.

The body of Mrs O’Driscoll was found at 6.45pm in the main Coomhola River and two miles from where her jeep had entered the water. Her daughter’s body was found sometime later in the tributary where the accident occurred.