Maritime lawyer Michael Kingston has questioned why there has been no inquest date has been set into the death of Irish Coast Guard volunteer Caitriona Lucas.
As The Sunday Independent reports, Mr Kingston said it was" shocking” that almost six years after Ms Lucas’s death, no inquest has taken place yet.
Ms Lucas (41), a librarian, mother of two, and advanced coxswain with Doolin Coast Guard in Co Clare, died off Kilkee on September 12th, 2016.
She had offered to help out the neighbouring Coast Guard Kilkee unit in a search for a missing man, and died after the unit’s rigid inflatable boat (RIB) capsized in a shallow surf zone.
Two other crew members on board the RIB, who were also thrown into the sea, survived.
As Ms Lucas was pronounced dead in hospital in Limerick, responsibility for her inquest is with the Limerick coroner’s office.
Earlier this month, an inquest into the deaths of four air crew in the Irish Coast Guard Rescue 116 crash resumed, following publication of the final Air Accident Investigation Unit report last November.
In Ms Lucas’s case, two separate investigations were completed some time ago into the circumstances surrounding her death.
The Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) report was published in December 2018.
Two years ago Ms Lucas’s husband, Bernard Lucas, was informed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) that no criminal charges would be brought after a separate investigation by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).
The MCIB report was critical of the Irish Coast Guard’s safety management system, and catalogued a number of systems and equipment failures in relation to the Kilkee Coast Guard unit.
However, Mr Lucas said that he “very disappointed” that the published MCIB report had failed to address questions over equipment his wife was wearing, and both he and members of the Kilkee Coast Guard unit queried the location given in the report.
Mr Kingston has also criticised the MCIB report into Ms Lucas’s death, and has called for a re-investigation.
Read more in The Sunday Independent here