Hero fishermen rescue woman in Cork City after car enters water at Kennedy Quay
Divers from the Mallow Search and Rescue Unit arrived later and attached straps to the car, which was lifted from the river later. Picture: Jim Coughlan.
Two foreign fishermen and a port worker have been hailed as heroes after they dived into the freezing River Lee and saved a woman whose car had entered the water.
Belgian nationals, Farid Langens and Kevin Roos, crewmen on separate Belgian-flagged trawlers, and quayside operative, William Ross, all dived into the river at Cork’s Kennedy Quay, climbed onto the car, secured it with a rope, smashed its rear window and pulled the woman to safety just before lunchtime on Monday.
Mr Langens was working on the deck of his vessel, Soetkin, when he saw the car fly through the air between his trawler, and the D Maria Antonia, berthed in front of him. He was the first to dive in.
“I didn’t hesitate. There was no time," he said.
"The car was floating and I knew if it passed my ship, that it would float away and sink and there would be no one else downriver to help.
“I was first into the water and I managed to hook a line onto the wheel of the car.
“Then two other people jumped in and helped.
“I’m happy now but the cold is still in my bones.”
Gerry Myers, a third officer with Cork City Fire Brigade, said all three men are heroes.
“The response from these guys was immediate. They reacted with little regard for their own safety. Their bravery should be lauded because without them, the outcome would not have been positive,” he said.
While Garda investigations into the circumstances of the incident are underway, it’s understood that the car was driven onto the working quayside area of Kennedy Quay just moments before it left the quayside and entered the water, passing between the two trawlers which were unloading their catch.
Mr Langens dived in first, followed just seconds later by Mr Roos. Mr Ross sprinted across the quayside and also dived it to help.
Mr Langens wrapped a rope around one of the car's front wheels to stop it drifting downriver, before the men managed to smash its rear window and get the woman out alive.
Emergency services, including a swift water rescue team from Cork City Fire Brigade, National Ambulance Service paramedics, members of the Crosshaven Coast Guard unit, and gardaí rushed to the scene and found the men, with help from the other fishermen, had recovered the woman on to the deck of one of the trawlers. They helped to recover the woman to the quayside.
She was taken to the Mercy University Hospital for treatment as the trawler crews lashed the car to the side of one of the trawlers.
The three men were medically assessed at the scene and apart from mild hypothermia, they were deemed uninjured.
Divers from the Mallow Search and Rescue Unit arrived later and attached straps to the car, which was lifted from the river later.
Victor Shine, a third officer with Cork City Fire Brigade, hailed their lifesaving intervention.
“They are exceptional individuals and this was a superb outcome,” he said.
The trawlers are due to depart the Port of Cork on Tuesday morning.
Monday’s dramatic rescue is the second such rescue of a person in a car from the river in a week.
Fire fighters rescued a man last week after his car entered shallow water off Blackrock Pier.
