THE FAMILY of a 19-year-old woman were last night maintaining a vigil at her bedside in Kerry General Hospital after she was seriously injured when a sand dune collapsed on her in west Kerry yesterday afternoon.
Niamh McCarthy from Ballygrissane, Minane Bridge in south Cork, was visiting the Maharees near Castlegregory on the Dingle Peninsula when a sand dune collapsed and she was buried under a mound of sand.
Gardaí have launched an investigation, which is still at a preliminary stage, but it’s understood Ms McCarthy could have been buried for at least 10-15 minutes before her friends and others were able to free her.
It is believed she was staying in a rented house with a group of other young people.
It is understood that a hole had been dug and young people had been jumping into the hole from the top of the dune when the dune suddenly collapsed.
Local man Jamie Knox said there was a great sense of shock in the community. “Everybody plays on sand dunes. We all do it. It could happen to anyone,” said Mr Knox, who runs a popular water sports and surfing school nearby.
The accident happened just before 3.30pm when sand from a 10m sand spur at the Maharees collapsed. Units of Kerry County Fire Service as well as medical personnel and gardaí attended at the scene.
Locals also assisted and Ms McCarthy was taken by HSE South ambulance to Kerry General Hospital some 20 miles away in Tralee, where she last night remained in a critical condition in intensive care.
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