As the inquest into the death of Irish Coast Guard volunteer Caitriona Lucas continues, the court has heard how she was both fastidious and dedicated.
Health and Safety Authority (HSA) inspector Helen McCarthy told the coroner John McNamara and jury that she had seen Ms Lucas’s Irish Coast Guard logbook during her time with the Doolin unit.
“I have never seen anything quite so meticulous,” she told the Limerick coroner John McNamara at Kilmallock courthouse.
Simon Mills, senior counsel for the Department of Transport and Irish Coast Guard, said Ms Lucas was “an absolutely fantastic member of the Coast Guard”.
A senior officer with the Irish Coast Guard’s Kilkee unit told the third day of the inquest on Wednesday that its D-class rescue craft could have been on scene within ten minutes if she had the trained crew to launch it.
Orla Hassett, Kilkee Coast Guard deputy officer-in-charge (OIC) and a paramedic with the National Ambulance Service, also said that numbers in the Kilkee unit had dwindled so much that they had to seek help from “flanking stations” – including the Doolin unit, which Ms Lucas was a volunteer with.
Responding to questions from marine expert Michael Kingston, representing the Lucas family, Ms Hassett said she had informed Irish Coast Guard management the previous March (2016) of “escalating issues” which could affect rescue taskings due to “inter-personal” relations.
She said that Kilkee volunteer numbers had fallen from 30 in 2010 to 12 by 2013, and “four very experienced members” left in the weeks before the incident.
Ms Lucas (41), an advanced coxswain with Doolin Coast Guard and mother of two, died after the Kilkee Coast Guard Delta RIB she was helping out with as crew capsized during a search for a missing man on September 12, 2016.
She was the first Irish Coast Guard volunteer to lose her life during a tasking.
A consultant pathologist Dr Teresa Laszlo told the inquest that cause of death was due to drowning, but said that a skull injury which could cause temporary loss of consciousness could have been a contributory factor.
HSA inspector Ms McCarthy confirmed that her employer had to seek legal advice before it could start its investigation, which delayed it by nine months, and she did not have immediate access to Ms Lucas’s personal protective equipment (PPE).
The HSA was able to establish that a Coast Guard RIB was a place of work under existing legislation, and that the Irish Coast Guard has a duty of care to all its staff and volunteers.
PPE was given to the Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB ), which did permit her to photograph Ms Lucas’s drysuit but she could not take it in evidence, she said.
She did not see Ms Lucas’s helmet, and was sent a “cutoff” of the Irish Coast Guard logo from the drysuit by the Irish Coast Guard. The court heard the drysuit was disposed of in a skip.
Ms McCarthy said that no risk assessment had been prepared of the area where the capsize occurred in Lookout Bay, which can be affected in certain conditions by unexpected waves in neighbouring Intrinsic Bay.
She said her investigation also showed that there were ongoing issues with the VHF radio on board the RIB that capsized, the coxswain was not trained for this position, according to Irish Coast Guard records, and personal locator beacons worn by the three crew failed to function.
Ms Lucas had been conscious in the sea for 17 minutes after the capsize, the inquest heard earlier this week.
The inquest continues.
Read the Irish Examiner here