Friends look on helplessly as man dies in car plunge

A 36-YEAR-OLD Limerick man died in the early hours of Saturday morning as two friends watched in horror as they and a Garda tried valiantly to free him from the submerged car in which he was trapped.

Neil McNelis, originally from Ashbrook Grove on the Ennis Road in Limerick city, died in his car after he accidentally reversed into a canal in Killaloe, Co Clare. One of two men who were with the victim, but not in the car at the time, jumped into the water in a vain attempt to rescue their friend.

The Trinity College Dublin graduate had been working in the capital for a number of years and lived in Stepaside in south Co Dublin. He had been attending the ‘afters’ of a wedding at a nearby hotel on the Ballina side of the River Shannon prior to the accident.

It is understood that at about 5.30am he and two friends drove across to a carpark on the Killaloe side of the river, a place known locally as Between the Waters. The area is located between the River Shannon and the canal at Royal Parade.

It is believed that after the car entered the carpark, the two passengers got out and that Mr McNelis drove on to a grassy margin nearby. When he was reversing his vehicle out again, he unwittingly backed into the canal as the stretch along which he was driving suddenly narrowed.

The car entered into the water, flipped on to its roof and began to sink.

One of the victim’s friends, who watched in horror as the tragedy unfolded, quickly jumped into the water to try and save the driver. A man living nearby was awakened by the drama and raised the alarm. A rescue operation quickly swung into action.

One of the first gardaí to arrive at the incident stripped down to his underwear and also jumped into the canal in an effort to reach the trapped man. The brave officer, however, was unable to free the driver. It is believed that if the car had remained upright, the victim would have had a greater chance of survival.

Emergency services rushed to the scene while the Killaloe unit of the Irish Coast Guard responded with both water and land based crews. Coast Guard members and fire service personnel attached a cable to the car and towed it to a shallower part of the canal so that divers could safely gain access to the victim.

A Coast Guard spokesperson said: “Our members quickly entered the water and with the assistance of the local fire service, a steel cable was placed around the car so that it could be towed to shallower water so the casualty could be removed. We managed to get the man out of the car but tragically he had passed away.”

Mr McNelis, who worked as an environmental engineer, had been attending the wedding with colleagues. He is survived by his mother Peggy, sister Avril and brother Frank.

Saturday’s tragedy occurred just yards from where a car crashed into the same canal four years ago. Four young men miraculously survived the July 2005 incident in which their car struck a parked car, skidded on its side for a distance before hitting a kerb and somersaulting over a wall into the water below. At the time all four were rushed to hospital but only one was detained.

He was treated for a serious head injury, but later recovered.