SARA Rescues 9 Year Old Boy from Severn Estuary at Beachley

Press Statement Issued by Severn Area Rescue Association at 16:50 on Thursday 4th August 2005

At 17:25 on Wednesday 3rd August, SARA were paged to attend an incident involving 2 persons stranded on the rocks at Beachley Point, Beachley, Gloucestershire. SARA (Severn Area Rescue Association) immediately scrambled a crew to their Beachley Lifeboat Station and launched SARA Lifeboat Number 1. The boat conducted a search of the area and located a casualty, who had been swept upstream from the rocks towards the Severn Bridge, at 17:42.

Upon the arrival of the SARA boat, the exhausted 9 year old lad, disappeared beneath the surface of the water. Two of the three crew members on SARA1 immediately dived into the water and conducted an underwater search in the area where the lad had gone down. He was quickly located and passed up onto the boat, into the care of the third member of the crew, the Coxswain of the Lifeboat. Despite suffering from hypothermia, the boy was able to tell the crew that his cousin, who he had been playing with, was close by.

The crew members quickly carried out a search of the water in the immediate vicinity and located the second casualty, an 8 year old boy, who was unconscious. The second lad was also passed up onto the boat and it quickly returned to Beachley Slipway, a matter of seconds from where the casualties were picked up.

Two crew members, both trained First Aiders (as are all SARA crew members) one of which was SARA Station Chairman Lloyd Bowden, were waiting on the slip way and took over the treatment of the 8 year old unconscious lad, using CPR, oxygen and a defibrillator on board the boat alongside Beachley Slipway. This continued until approximately 18:10, when he was passed, still unconscious, into the care of a Paramedic from the Ambulance Service and flown in a Rescue Helicopter from RAF Chivenor (Rescue 169) to Frenchay Hospital.

In the meantime, upon arrival at the slipway, the other 9 year old lad was carried by his SARA rescuer from the boat into the Lifeboat Station, where our crews placed him into a luke warm shower to gently raise his body temperature followed by further treatment for hypothermia and shock, which included him being wrapped in thermal blankets and gently warmed until he stabilised. He was later passed into the care of an Ambulance Crew from Gwent Ambulance Service, who transferred him to Frenchay Hospital by road.

SARA Station Chairman, Lloyd Bowden said:-

"With Beachley being a peninsular, any children living here have easy access to both the river Wye on one side and the treacherous Severn Estuary on the other. Children of this age, particularly during the school holidays, are drawn by the excitement that the river has to offer. The Severn is arguably the most dangerous stretch of water in the UK, not only due to it having the second highest tidal range in the world, but also because it is extremely fast flowing with very deep mud all along its banks. If these lads had been attempting to walk out to Chapel Rock, the island just off Beachley Point, the tide may have turned and it could have quickly started to make progress inwards. They could have found themselves out of their depth in just a few minutes."

"Following the success of recent Water Safety Talks at two local schools, St Johns On The Hill at Tutshill and Offas Mead Primary School, we must continue our education program for the children in the local community and I have been in touch with a representative from the Green Howards, the regiment based at Beachley Barracks, with a view to delivering Water Safety Talks to the children resident at the camp within the next week or so, to try to ensure that no other local children put themselves at risk in this way. This is an avoidable tragedy and education is key. The SARA rescue team performed admirably and were commended by the Coast Guard for such a speedy response. I am proud to be their chairman! We did our utmost to rescue both boys but tragically we were only 50% successful. This obviously affects our crews emotionally, myself included. Our thoughts are with the lads' family at this time."


"I would also like to commend the gentleman who raised the alarm. He kept the lads in sight and remained in communication with the Coast Guard until the boys were rescued. He did not attempt to go in after the lads and this was very sensible - it is most likely that had he have done so, he very quickly would have become a casualty himself."

News Item added 04/08/2005