102 incidents were dealt with in the first half of 2021 by Mountain Rescue Ireland members, close to a quarter of them involving the South Eastern team.
Five people died between January and July, one woman in this region, while 16 were seriously injured and 53 more sustained minor injuries.
Kilkenny man Liam McCabe’s with SEMRA and says his crew dealt with a significant portion of the call-outs, telling KCLR News “I know our own team at the end of Q2 we’ve had I think 26 incidents in that period so that’s nearly a quarter of the incidents in the South East which would be very high for our area but very much on a par with the rest of the country”.
He adds “It’s been busy, it’s one of our busiest years ever, as we speak we’re at 37 incidents we had many years where at the end of the year we had 37 incidents so we’ve essentially moved as a mountain rescue team to having two to three incidents a month to having two to three incidents a week in some cases”.
In Mr McCabe’s overview of the type of callouts they attended, he says “Quite a few serious incidents, a few of them involving motorcycles, some serious injuries or potentially serious injuries and quite a few medical and missing persons as well so it’s a mixed bag for us pretty much across the board from serious to trauma injuries to, I suppose, more minor injuries”.
He also says preparing for all eventualities before you head out can help, noting “I suppose in fairness the individuals who do have to call us, there are things they can do to help themselves and be more comfortable; it does happen and it’s usually around preparation, it’s usually around bringing some warm clothes with you, having good footwear, even having a little bit of food, a little bit of comfort with you so if you’re going out for a walk maybe bring a bag with warm clothing, a little bit of waterproof, just in case you have to stop, just in case something goes wrong”.
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