A coroner has called for regular inspections to be carried out on the accessibility of lifebuoys after an inquest heard friends of a teenager who got into difficulty while swimming in the Grand Canal could not untie a lifebuoy to assist in attempts to rescue him.
The coroner, Loretta Nolan, issued a number of riders to her verdict after hearing evidence from several eyewitnesses about the inability of other teenagers to remove a lifebuoy from its stand.
Dr Nolan said she would write to Waterways Ireland to alert the organisation of her recommendation that lifebuoys should be both available and accessible.
The coroner acknowledged that there is a problem with vandalism of the lifesaving equipment but stressed that there was a need to "get the balance right" in terms of making them accessible.
She said it was important for anyone considering getting into water to help another person to be able to access lifebuoys for their own personal safety.
Dr Nolan also called for swimming lessons to be made a formal part of the curriculum at secondary school level.
The coroner noted that transition year students do some lifeguard training in association with Water Safety Ireland.
She observed that it would be good for all post primary students to have the knowledge of what to do if they found themselves in similar situations.
The inquest heard evidence from six teenagers who were with Mr O’Connor at the time of the incident.
They told the coroner how two groups of friends from different schools had met up and decided to go swimming in the Grand Canal near the Cliff at Lyons country retreat.
The inquest heard that Mr O’Connor – a third year student at Coláiste Chilliain in Clondalkin, Dublin – had gone to the canal on his e-scooter with a speaker to play music.
The teenagers described how some of them were jumping in and out of the canal, but Mr O’Connor had originally indicated he was not going to go in the water.
Another friend said he and Mr O’Connor had jumped into the water together after others had been diving into the canal for about 30 minutes.
He raised the alarm just after 5pm after realising that his friend was not getting out of the water.
One witness said he would have advised his friend not to go in the water if he had realised that Mr O’Connor could not swim.
The teenager recalled seeing Mr O’Connor was drowning when he saw him trying to swim to the surface with air bubbles coming out of his mouth.
He said he jumped back into the water, and both were reaching out to try and grab hold of each other.
The witness said he tried to hold onto a chain to go deeper but "we were out of reach of each other".
"Everyone loved Max. He was a good friend and a friendly guy.
"We’ll all miss Max. He’ll never be forgotten," he said, describing him as "very funny" and "gentle".
'Panic' in the water
Another teenager who dived into the canal to try and rescue Mr O’Connor said his friend looked like he was panicking in the water.
The witness said he and another swimmer had grabbed the Mr O’Connor by the arms but were unable to pull him up.
"He was struggling and panicking," the teenager said.
He said others were screaming at them to get out of the water which was estimated to be 15-20 foot deep.
One girl fought back tears as she described how they struggled to remove the lifebuoy off its stand.
Another boy described trying to kick at the lifebuoy stand to try and break it as its rope, but it was "wrapped around a pole" and could not be removed.
A woman living near the lock, Maeve Boylan, described how she was originally wary of the group of teenagers as she had experience of some groups being "trouble" but had observed how they seemed "calm and friendly".
Ms Boylan said she realised that there was a bit of panic among them at one stage, and realised a short time later what had happened when she heard someone shout out that someone was missing.
She told the inquest that she had spent 20 minutes on a 999 call to emergency services.
She had also got a key to open the lock to drain the water from the area where the group were swimming.
Ms Boylan said she was frustrated at not being able to do anything further to help after realising that they were not going to be able to save Mr O’Connor.
An aunt of the deceased, Joanne Moore, gave evidence of formally identifying her nephew’s body to gardaí.
Dr Nolan said the results of a postmortem showed that Mr O'Connor had died from drowning.
She said toxicology reports had corroborated the evidence of the witnesses that the deceased had not consumed any alcohol or drugs.
Returning a verdict of accidental death, Dr Nolan also recommended that counselling should be provided to Mr O’Connor’s friends, if they had not already received it.
The coroner said she would be writing to the different schools attended by the witnesses about her belief that counselling would be beneficial for them.
"It’s an experience that most people don’t experience thankfully," she said.
