TWO off-duty Gardaí, members of the public, and a quick-thinking lorry driver helped the fire service rescue a woman who was in danger of falling from a fly-over in the city.
Limerick force members Inspector Gearoid Thompson and Sergeant Brian Duddy both spotted the woman in difficulty on the parapet of the overpass above the motorway on the approach to The Crescent Shopping Centre on Monday evening (October 16).
“A lot of members of the public stopped to try to help,” Inspector Thompson told the Limerick Post.
“A lorry driver parked his lorry right under her so that, if she did fall, she would fall on his canopy and not down on the motorway. He is to be congratulated for his quick thinking.”
However the woman got into serious danger again as she moved to another part of the bridge as the fire service arrived. Both Garda members and members of the public helped fire crews hold a huge stretched taurpaulin to try to break the woman’s fall.
“It was a very tense situation. We were bracing ourselves because she could have come off the bridge at any second. The fire crews eventually managed to help her into a cherry picker and brought her to safety.”
The woman was brought by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick.
The drama unfolded over a two-hour period and the N18 dual-carriageway on the approach to the Limerick Tunnel was closed for a period with long tailbacks around the city due to the incident.
