A RETIRED US lifeguard was forced to spring in to action and rescue tourists from quicksand on two separate occasions in Lahinch recently.
Cary Languirand, who lives in Ennis, rescued a German woman who was stuck up to her waist in quicksand in the river at Liscannor Bridge.
He stopped her husband and the family dog from crossing the river and pulled the woman out of the quicksand.
In a separate incident, Cary also stopped a group of European tourists from crossing the river at low tide.
Clare County Council have stated that additional multilingual signage is due to be erected in the area to warn visitors of the dangerous quicksand, following a request from Fine Gael Councillor Johnny Flynn.
“I went up to have a look and there was no signs warning of it. I raised it with the Water safety Officer at the council and I have got a reply back to say that they are looking at installing a number of warning signs at that location,” Cllr Flynn said.
He cited the recent spell of good weather and the subsequent increase in visitors to the area as an important reason to put up warning signs.
“It’s particularly important with the summer that we have had, we’ve a huge amount of visitors on the west coast and with the Wild Atlantic Way we’re getting a huge amount of international visitors, so I think it would be terrible to see a loss of life or a serious injury due to the lack of warning signs at that location,” Cllr Flynn added.
