This article is from page 10 of the 2005-09-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
A SERIOUSLY injured man lay in agony for an hour after a road accident in Scariff on Sun- day night, because the Scariff ambulance was locked up.
Distraught locals did their best to comfort the injured man, who was thrown from his motor- cycle into a garden. The motorbike demolished the pier of a garden wall.
He is now in the intensive care unit at Limer- ick’s Regional Hospital and is being treated for serious lower body injuries.
The accident, which also involved a car, hap- pened at 7.30pm at Ballyminogue on the Scar- iff to Portumna road.
One local woman who tried to help the in- jured 28-year old said that it was “absolutely dreadful. The man was in terrible pain but he had to wait nearly 45 minutes for a doctor and a full hour for an ambulance to come out from Limerick.”
The local woman said that residents on the road “came out to do what they could, but it was terrible. He was obviously badly injured, but we didn’t know what to do. An hour is a very long time when you’re lying injured on the ground yet there was an ambulance just up the road. It’s a disgrace.”
One eye-witness who came on the scene said that the “bike was mangled. It looked as if it had been cut in half.”
One Scariff resident said that the “fire bri-
gade were there very quickly, way before there was any medical help for the poor man. We need that ambulance available to us and a lo- cal number that we can ring for a doctor when
something this serious happens. It took far too long for medical help to reach him.”
Local Councillor, Colm Wiley (FF) called just last month for a full-time ambulance serv- ice for the Scariff area.
“That ambulance is under lock and key from about 7pm until after midnight because there is no funding to crew it,’ the councillor said.
He said that the injured man might well have had to wait for an ambulance to come from even further away, if one had not been avail- able to come out from Limerick.
“It’s a very serious situation and lives are be- ing put at risk because of it. I am calling for funding to be made available immediately to provide 24 -hour crewing for the ambulance which is already here,’ he said.
East Clare Senator Timmy Dooley said, the Scariff ambulance service needs to be upgrad- ed as a matter of urgency.
A report on the ambulance services for the Mid-West Region, including the service in Scariff, has been submitted to the Health Serv- ice Executive for consideration.
“This is something we have been campaign- ing for, for a while and it has been brought to the attention to the Minister for Health,’ he Sr ntee