WATCH: Pedestrians take tumbles as City Hall dithers over who is responsible

Galway City Tribune – A pensioner was hospitalised after falling on a crumbling city footpath – and six days after it was reported, Galway City Council still hadn’t carried out repairs.

CCTV footage captures the moment the woman, believed to be in her 80s, took a nasty tumble on Eyre Street last Friday.

She was badly shaken and bleeding after walloping the ground, as passers-by rushed to her aid. An ambulance was called, and she was transported 35 minutes later to University Hospital Galway where she was treated.

On the same day, a middle-aged man who was walking along the same footpath also tripped on a ‘lip’ in the pavement near a water connection point. This was also captured on CCTV by cameras at a business premises on the opposite side of the street.

Fianna Fáil City Councillor Ollie Crowe reported the matter to the City Council but is livid with the local authority’s inaction – it was not fixed nearly a week after it was first reported.

Cllr Crowe said the Council was an “absolute disgrace” for “abandoning its duty of care to its citizens”.

“It is totally unacceptable that six days on, this is still not fixed despite repeated representations by me and an admission by a senior official that the footpath was like an obstacle course,” fumed Cllr Crowe.

He reported the incident first to the Transport and Infrastructure section of the Council, which deals with roads. They investigated and determined it was a matter for Water Services, and so he reported it to that section of the Council.

“In fairness, a senior official from Water Services came out and inspected it on Saturday morning and told me that it was so bad it was as ‘close to an obstacle course’. I was told it would be fixed first thing Monday morning. Then a foreman goes up on Monday and said he ‘couldn’t see anything wrong with it’.

He cited figures previously revealed by the Galway City Tribune following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, showing personal injury claims have cost the city almost €4 million over the past three years.
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