CUH<\/a>) after the crash, which occurred at the fourth stage of the rally amid heavy rain and wind. <\/p>\nThe event took place two days after Storm Eunice, which was the subject of a Status Red weather warning. <\/p>\n
There was no mobile coverage at the stage where the crash occurred, resulting in delays in communication at the scene.<\/p>\n
![\"Eoin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786741090_551_N63TDSLRVZD2FDRHK6MRTY46C4.jpeg\")
Eoin McCarthy. Photograph: rip.ie <\/p>\n
The inquest heard that MSI had failed to designate an area for the air ambulance to land in the event of an emergency at the rally. <\/p>\n
The air ambulance initially went to Mountcollins in Limerick but found itself unable to land. The landing site was then changed to Brosna, Co Kerry. The air ambulance ultimately landed in an area quite close to the crash site. <\/p>\n
Evidence was also given that the ambulance containing navigator Daniel O\u2019Brien landed on its side, while a second ambulance was unable to pass the stranded vehicle. <\/p>\n
The family of O\u2019Brien were later informed that he was in CUH when, in fact, he had been transferred to Kerry General Hospital.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the inquest at Cork Coroner\u2019s Court heard that, at the time of the crash, volunteers had not been trained on the protocols involved in reacting to a situation which involved the deployment of the air ambulance. <\/p>\n
One witness who was volunteering for MSI said that when they arrived at Mountcollins with the casualty on board an ambulance, they were informed that the air ambulance had landed in a different area. The change had not been communicated to them. <\/p>\n
Barrister for the McCarthy family, Derek Ryan, made a series of submissions to Coroner Philip Comyn about possible recommendations in the case.<\/p>\n
During the course of the inquest, he spoke of the concerns the family had relating to delays in the emergency response and the lack of a predesignated air ambulance landing area. <\/p>\n
Ryan stated that \u201cforeseeable risks\u201d had not been identified by MSI before the rally. He said the crash happened amid poor weather at a bridge. There was an absence of railing on one side at the site of the crash.<\/p>\n
He said that MSI should require that every safety plan going forward identifies fast-flowing water hazards, bridges, culverts, watercourses, drops and embankments.<\/p>\n
He said that MSI should have safety rails, barriers and exclusion measures in place at areas of risk.<\/p>\n
He also called for the introduction of a mandatory adverse weather protocol amid some confusion as to when exactly an event should be cancelled amid inclement weather. <\/p>\n
Barrister Beibhinn Murphy, representing MSI, said that a number of the recommendations suggested by Ryan had already been implemented following the tragedy. <\/p>\n
She also spoke of significant advances in tracking which have occurred in the years following the tragedy.<\/p>\n
The family had urged Coroner Philip Comyn to record a verdict of misadventure in the case.<\/p>\n
Comyn described rallying as \u201can exciting and exhilarating sport\u201d. However, he said that it involved a degree of risk.<\/p>\n
He offered his sincere condolences to the family following their loss. <\/p>\n
He will consider the recommendations sought by the family in the coming days. He will furnish his recommendations to the relevant parties next week. <\/p>\n
Sgt Fergus Twomey praised the McCarthy family for giving their late son a voice at the inquest.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the inquest, Rachel McCarthy, the sister of the deceased, said that the family wanted to thank all those who assisted Eoin at the scene of the crash. She said that their sincere hope was that MSI \u201clearn from the mistakes of the past\u201d and \u201cfully implement any of the Coroner\u2019s recommendations without further delay\u201d.<\/p>\n
McCarthy is survived by his parents Liam and Nora, his siblings Conor and Rachel, his aunts, uncles, grand aunts and uncles, cousins, work colleagues at Wesco and a large circle of friends. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Motorsport Ireland has been asked to \u201clearn from mistakes\u201d made at a forestry rally in which a 22-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[46,50043,61,60,36278,43],"class_list":["post-593395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork","tag-cork-university-hospital-cuh","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-motorsport","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}