The Galway Sub Aqua Club wants an efficient system that allows members to be a support when an emergency arises.
The Galway Sub Aqua Club provide a voluntary service to help save lives. Members of the club are frustrated by what they says is lack of support from emergency services and the local authority.
The docks in Galway has been the scene of almost a dozen drownings in the past few years. People have perished after their cars plunged into the water. People have drowned, locked inside vehicles under the water, due to delays from the rescue and emergency services.
Members of the Galway Sub Aqua Club are offering their services on a voluntary basis to help prevent such tragedies. They want to see the service streamlined and properly coordinated. The current system is logistically cumbersome which causes delays. One member of the club says there is a need for a dedicated emergency number like the 999 system so that divers are contacted faster and simultaneously. The club want to see coordinated cooperation from the emergency services to help save lives.
The Galway Sub Aqua Club approached the emergency services and the local authorities to voice their concerns over the current service and to offer ideas for improvement. However, progress is either slow or non-existent and nobody appears to want to take responsibility for the provision of the life saving service.
Dr Peter O'Byrne, Galway Sub Aqua Club, has some advice in the event that a car should plunge into the water. Those inside a submerged vehicle should wait for the pressure to equalise and then make an escape to the surface.
This episode of 'Newsbeat' was broadcast on 20 January 1971. The reporter is Cathal O'Shannon.
