High fines needed as council backs Luke's Law

The members of Cavan County Council have offered their support to the family of a young man who drowned in Cork's River Lee and are now campaigning for the recording of such tragic accidents to be made illegal.

Luke Hyde was aged 34 years when he died after getting into difficulty while swimming in the north channel at Pope’s Quay.

Shockingly, video footage of Luke’s final moments was recorded by onlookers and shared on social media.

Luke’s heartbroken mum Elizabeth and childhood friend Kelly Ann Peyton are leading the campaign.

Both have spoke about how emergency responders had to push people out of the way in order to get to Luke as they tried to save his life.

The motion to back their campaign was tabled at the June monthly meeting of elected members by Independent Ireland's Shane P O'Reilly.

In doing so he called on the Minister for Justice, Jim O'Callaghan, to introduce the legislation to prohibit such behaviour during the lifetime of this government.

Similar laws already exist in other countries, such as in Germany where it is a criminal offence to photograph or record the victims of a fatal accident, even if the recording or photos are not published. This law also applies to filming the scene of an accident itself.

Cllr O'Reilly spoke of the “terrible impact” it must have had on Luke's mum to see footage of the tragedy that led to her son's death shared widely on social media before receiving actual confirmation from the relevant authorities.

“Lizzy Hyde saw her son drown before she knew he was dead,” Cllr O'Reilly told the meeting, urging people to “cop the hell on” when it came to reacting to things on social media simply “for a few extra likes".

The father of five said it was a “damning indictment” on society that this is where we've arrived.

His motion was seconded by Fianna Fáil's Philip Brady who said the trend of taking out a phone to video an incident instead of offering help was “deeply concerning”.

He also upped the ante on the €1,000 fine suggested by Cllr O'Reilly to €5,000 for anyone caught filming the scene of an accident.

There was support too from Sinn Féin's Damien Brady, who also works with Cavan Fire Service. He said he has been “horrified” to see cars filled with people, phones pointed, passing crashes.

He recalled one incident where a person was saved from drowning where he and his crew had to ask gardaí to move people watching, while they applied CPR and could get a privacy tent erected.

Cllr Brady's daughter once received a photo of an accident her father was attending. “It's gone too far,” said the Ballyconnell based representative

Independent Brendan Fay said a change in legislation couldn't come soon enough, while John Paul Feeley (FF) said that legislation in this area “shouldn't be necessary but unfortunately it is. It's a poor reflection on society.”

Áine Smith (FF), Noel Connell (SF), Winston Bennett (FG) and outgoing Carthaoirleach also backed the need for penalties in this regard.