FROZEN LAKES:THE PUBLIC is continuing to walk, cycle and skate on frozen lakes, despite warnings.
Gardaí have issued an appeal, particularly to children, to keep off frozen waterways for their own safety.
Cavan County Council senior engineer Kevin Sexton said some “crazy behaviour” had been going on on some of the 265 lakes in the county. Mr Sexton said he had heard reports of children riding bicycles on frozen lakes and that a colleague spotted an adult walking two small children across the lake out to an island on Thursday.
“I happened to go down to check a road in Virginia yesterday and I observed a person pushing a person in a wheelchair on the ice,” he told RTÉ’s News at One programme. “This is unbelievable.”
Mr Sexton said ice can vary in thickness and that because of the dry spell the ground is now frozen and ground water is not moving.
“The ground water is not entering the streams which are feeding the lakes and the lakes are emptying and discharging into the rivers, which means the water level will drop underneath the ice and that is when it will become particularly dangerous,” he said.
“The ice is suspended and will eventually drop on to the [water], but if people end up being on the ice at that stage they could end up going through it . . . Nobody wants to see a tragedy.”
A Garda press office spokeswoman last night said: “Young children are skating on lakes and thinking that they are safe, but it could crack under them and they could get stuck underneath.
“We are urging extreme caution for children when outdoors to stay away from lakes and rivers because we don’t know how safe they are,” added the spokeswoman. Gardaí have also advised members of the public not to go “ice fishing” on frozen lakes or canals during the cold snap.
Gardaí in Mullingar were alerted to five men who were ice fishing at Ballinafid lake on the outskirts of Mullingar, Co Westmeath, on Thursday.
A member of the public who alerted gardaí said: “There were five people out on the lake with a rubber dinghy pulled out to carry their equipment. They had pitched a small tent on the ice, it was unbelievable.”
