A weekend trip to Lough Derg nearly ended in disaster for a family when their car, with baby in the backseat, rolled backwards off Knockaphort Pier into Lough Derg, Co. Clare on Saturday afternoon.
Knockaphort Pier, Lough Derg, Co. Clare (Credit Google Maps)
The 6 month old toddler was strapped into a baby chair when the parked car began to roll down the pier. The baby’s parents had only momentarily stepped away from the vehicle when the nightmare scenario occurred.
Luckily angler John Barry was on the scene and rushed to the baby’s aid when he heard the mother cry out.
Barry was already up to his waist in the lake angling at the time and could see the car was taking on water. He waded out to the car and managed to remove the baby chair with baby, bringing the child back unscathed to the panicked parents.
Barry told the Clare Champion “The baby wasn’t in any way traumatised. The baby didn’t even get wet. I never saw such a happy baby in all my life. The baby was smiling in its mother’s arms, going up the pier.
Barry said that this could of “had the makings of a tragic accident”, but didn’t “believe the car would have gone out far enough for the baby to have drowned in it”.
After his heroics rescue Barry assisted in towing the car back onto the pier. What a legend!
And aside from a little water in the car and some shattered nerves, the Dublin family were all fine afterward.
