Traffic chaos sees gardaí close beaches

FOLLOWING traffic chaos at several West Cork beaches last Sunday, which saw someclosed for a period by gardaí, the public are  being reminded to park smartly and safely and to ensure emergency vehicles can get by.

The call comes after gardaí were forced to close off access to Garrylucas, Garrettstown and The Dock beaches last Sunday due to severe congestion. Motorists were told to turn back and leave the area.

Supt Brendan Fogarty of Bandon Garda Station said that a combination of good weather and a large number of people attending West Cork in general, and the Kinsale area in particular, led to the congestion.

‘From a road safety perspective we would ask people to be mindful of the people living there and mindful of the fact that these roads need to be accessible in the event of an emergency for all principle response agencies,’ he said.

‘I would ask people not to obstruct entrances or the roadway and leave enough road space to allow traffic to pass through.’ He said that some areas were so bad that they had to be closed off for a period in order to ease the congestion.

Cllr Kevin Murphy described the scenes on the approach roads to The Dock beach as ‘absolute mayhem’ and noted that a lot of tickets were handed out to motorists who parked illegally.

‘The two roads approaching Castle Park were choked and it was outlandishly dangerous and there was no way an emergency vehicle could get down onto the beach there,’ he said He commended the gardaí for trying to make Garrylucas and Garrettstown as safe as possible, despite some complaints that they may have been ‘over zealous.’

Meanwhile, four paddle boarders had a lucky escape at Inchydoney Beach last Saturday after winds swept them 2.5km away from where they started at Duneen Strand near Dunmore. The Inchydoney Lifeboat was on patrol when it spotted them off Inchydoney beach. Their crew took them and their boards onto the lifeboat and brought them back to safety.