DAVITT WALSH HAS described the haunting moment he was handed a four-month-old girl and told ‘save my baby’ as the infant’s family drowned.
Five people tragically died last night when their car slipped off the pier in Buncrana and were named as 46-year-old Sean McGrotty, sons Mark (12) and Evan (8), his mother-in-law Ruth Daniels (57) and daughter Jodie Lee, 15.
Walsh had played for Fanad United in their 3-1 defeat to Letterkenny Rovers yesterday afternoon in the Ulster Senior League.
The Kerrykeel man and his girlfriend, Stephanie Knox, went to Buncrana for a drive.
They were close to the scene when a by-stander, Francis Crawford, alerted them to the unfolding tragedy.
“They were all screaming: ‘Help, Help, Help’. I took off my clothes, down to my boxers and swam out as fast as I could. The window was half ajar and the father was hitting it with his elbow trying to break it,” Walsh told RTÉ.
Four-month-old baby Rionaghac –Ann was handed out of the Audi SUV by Sean McGrotty.
“He sat out on the ledge of the window and the water started to seep in,” Walsh recalled.
“He handed me the baby infant and said: ‘Take the baby’. I wanted to help more people, but the water started to come in. He just looked at me and said: ‘Save my baby’. I held the baby above my head and swam back to the shore.”
Tags:
