Well at least some people helped her.

To be fair, I don't think anyone had noticed.

But, why no-one had said "oi, don't be daft, get off the slipway" beforehand, I don't know (although maybe that's the Scout leader in me talking).

With my RNLI hat on, I would wonder why she was there in the first place.

But a big thanks to the person who could be bothered

oh she was lucky.  the person who helped, helped quickly and appeared to reach her just before she got swept away.  That went from fun to life threatening in zero seconds 🙁

Ooh that's dramatic.

[i]I would wonder why she was there in the first place.[/i]

For the Insta likes probably. 😉

With my RNLI hat on, I would wonder why she was there in the first place

I think you could wonder that in any hat to be fair.

Very lucky girl 😳

I would wonder why she was there in the first place.

Cos teenagers do stupid things, nothing more to it than that.

There is a cut in the video. Some move away at before the cut, some run back after the cut.

I’m not sure what the OP’s point is…

Bit harsh. Very difficult to tell from the video but people look concerned and are trying to decide what to do. Someone obviously runs off to fetch the life-ring (why wasn't there one on the end of the harbour?)

Waves are big there and you can't really blame anyone for not just immediately jumping in!

Stupid place to be "playing" also so hopefully lessons learnt!

Someone obviously runs off to fetch the life-ring (

Correct answer.

Rule one: never endanger yourself. Two casualties are always worse than one.

She's lucky the bystander got to her. The bystander who did is lucky they weren’t also the subject of a lifeboat search.

Correct answer.

Rule one: never endanger yourself. Two casualties are always worse than one.

She’s lucky the bystander got to her. The bystander who did is lucky they weren’t also the subject of a lifeboat search.

This.

First thing you are taught on a first aid course as well.

We all know what is the RIGHT thing to do, in the manual and all that...  but if you're stood there and see an actual kid getting washed away, what you would actually do is harder to say.

Someone obviously runs off to fetch the life-ring (why wasn’t there one on the end of the harbour?)

and

Waves are big there and you can’t really blame anyone for not just immediately jumping in!

You answered your own question - don't put your safety equipment where its likely to get washed away or where people might endanger themselves going to get it.

Yep - the big cut in the video makes it a bit tricky to work out what's what - You can really tell if she made it to that convenient point where she could be pulled out by chance or she's swum for it.

We all know what is the RIGHT thing to do, in the manual and all that… but if you’re stood there and see an actual kid getting washed away, what you would actually do is harder to say.

Absolutely. But the OP seemed to be suggesting that those apparently not doing anything to help were in the wrong, when they weren't.

Surprising how subtle it is when she slips away - I'd bet all the people at the far side were completely unaware. There is a cut in the video which makes it harder to see what's going on.

Even then. If you're not a strong swimmer yourself, and someone else has already run for the life ring, there may not be much you can do without potentially making the situation a lot worse.

what you would actually do is harder to say.

Tut loudly and ask "Where are the parents?"?

Even then. If you’re not a strong swimmer yourself, and someone else has already run for the life ring, there may not be much you can do without potentially making the situation a lot worse.

Indeed. I've swum for a dog once in similar seas. As a pretty competent sea swimmer I was confident it was within my capabilities. My wife (also a v strong sea swimmer) was there too and spotting for me (pointing at the dog from the shore which was hard to keep an eye on from the water then stood on the beach indicating the best line through the breaks as I body surfed in with it). TBH the hardest part of it was keeping other people keen to help out of the way and away from my wife so I could easily see her. Rescue only needs a finite number of people - after that they are often a hindrence no matter how well meaning. And on recovering to the beach - no one REALLY needs a photo of a hairy man in his pants clutching a half drowned dog on their smartphone do they?

Tut loudly and ask “Where are the parents?”?

Or film it for the YBF £250 😀

Or film it for the YBF £250 😀

I don't think Jeremy beadle is doing that any more. Off touring with Joe cocker last I heard.

With my RNLI hat on, I would wonder why she was there in the first place.

This is very judgemental. It's not the role of the RNLI to stop people doing risky activity. Educate and inform, but not restrict.

If we look to take all risk out of society we'd soon be stopping mountain biking.

If we look to take all risk out of society we’d soon be stopping mountain biking.

You've clearly not seen my mountain biking if you think it confers risk

Or film it for the YBF £250 😀

Its probably insta likes these days

As a pretty competent sea swimmer I was confident it was within my capabilities.

I used to go out with a girl who was a very strong swimmer (national-level competitor) as well as having her life-saving qualifications. We were on holiday in Greece and someone got into trouble. The lifeguards on the beach clearly didn't know what to do and I said to her that perhaps she should help. She said something along the lines of what others have said on here already - two lives lost would be worse than one.

We promptly left the beach as what was unfolding didn't look very pleasant. Later that evening, there was a sunlounger just there on the beach with a covered body laid out on it. Pretty horrific stuff, but I then understood what she meant – she clearly assessed the risk and knew it to be too great.

As for the OP link – she is a very, very lucky person, as is the person that saved her. On another day there could have been two lives lost. Grim.

Brave call from the person who waded in. Sitting in the shallows of the leisure pool with my wee boys, even those wee waves can knock you off your feet.

I bet her parents held her tight that night and everyone there learned a lesson.

As well as the danger of being swept away from safety, the odds of being knocked out by either the railing or the concrete slipway are pretty high.

The people who ran to get a life ring were using their heads, the people who went in after her were using their gut. In the end everything was OK, but that could very easily have ended up as a situation where the life-ring fetchers were hailed as cool-headed heroes for saving two lives.

As for the kid being daft for being on the slipway (for lolz or a dare or whatever), well yes, clearly. But I doubt she'll be doing it again anytime soon and I witnessed (and was involved in) some stupid dangerous stuff for bets/dares as a teenager, so claiming any sort of moral high ground is tricky.

One bet involving a school trip, cross-channel ferry at night and an exposed ledge outside the last safety rail still makes me sweat a bit thinking about it now, thirty years on. 😳

Its very hard ( for me anyway) not to try to help.  Given I swim like a brick me going into the water would probably have meant another person to be rescued.  It looks like tho the rescuers were on a submerged walkway with a railing?  I'd like to think my training in medical emergencies would have helped me have a clear head and make the right decisions but you do not know until you are in those positions.

Not going in is hard. One of the longest 10 minutes of my life was standing at the edge of a frozen canal basin watching 4 people in the water who had fallen through the ice. Two old guys, two colleagues.  The safety lines we had were designed for pulling someone through water. They snapped when trying to pull someone out onto the ice.  No lifejackets in the car despite working an area with a canal and rivers. The ice was that thickness where it supported bodyweight but no more. Stand at the edge of the hole to try and pull someone out and it collapsed. The fire service  arrived with ladders and got everyone  out.  Best guess was they were in the water for 18 minutes.  One of the old guys dead.  Two kids already out of sight under the ice when we arrived were recovered later by divers.  Must be over 35 years ago now.

Watching the clip back again, it's proper Final Destination-level stuff. No-one involved was meant to be going that day and one slightly different wave motion could have taken that poor girl in a slightly different direction and out of reach of the person that grabbed her. I hope all involved in saving that girl's life get properly acknowledged for their part in it.

Someone obviously runs off to fetch the life-ring (why wasn’t there one on the end of the harbour?)

Is it just me or did the life-ring rope seem pitifully short? Or perhaps it just wasn't deployed very well?

Interesting to see the bystanders who just walk away.

Hopefully those being judgmental about the bystanders have had a chance to think again about this situation. It can be very difficult to see what is going on, that any real action is needed, or how to react - and the point has been well made already about avoiding a second victim.

On a more general point, a lot of work was done on the “bystander effect” following the rape and murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964, apparently with 38 witnesses. This is a good perspective from Claudia Hammond on Radio 4:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b00b529r?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

If I considered the conditions safe; if I was suitably attired; and if the water wasn't too cold for my sortie southerner body then I would consider it for a smaller child (one where I am obviously stronger than them, and therefore could reasonably guess that I could be of physical assistance). If those three conditions were met, I'd probably already be on the slipway with them.

An adult or older teenager who I dont know - no chance. I assume they are equal or better to my swimming capablilites, and whatever got them would likely get me too, resulting in two casualties.

And if by some miracle I get to them, then I need to get their hysterical/injured/unconscious body back to terra firma by myself? Even less likely.

I know we have some watersports enthusiasts on this forum. their thoughts, hopefully as the result of official sea water training, may be different to mine.

Hopefully those being judgmental about the bystanders have had a chance to think again about this situation.

Absolutely - when you have split seconds to decide what to do, it is inevitable that some people will just freeze. I am not sure I would have made the right decision in that situation and I don't think the person that saved her actually made the right decision either but it was just very fortunate that it worked out in the end.

Hopefully those being judgmental about the bystanders have had a chance to think again about this situation

The other thing to bear in mind is if you can't help, the most helpful thing you can do is piss off out of the way of those who can. Most of those people will have had nothing to offer but a live Insta stream (doubtless some are rather disappointed at not getting that) so deliberately or not probably did about the most useful thing they could by wandering off.

To quote jarvis cocker:
Cause everybody hates a tourist
Especially one who, who thinks it's all such a laugh

"Someone obviously runs off to fetch the life-ring (why wasn’t there one on the end of the harbour?)"

There was. someone threw it in just after she was plucked from the briney

IHN
"To be fair, I don’t think anyone had noticed.

But, why no-one had said “oi, don’t be daft, get off the slipway” beforehand, I don’t know (although maybe that’s the Scout leader in me talking)."

my oldest now not so young antigee pokes me with you are going "beaver leader mode" when I react to kids in danger - i can survive it and she does a pretty good job as a rowing coach/coordinator of sorting tricky stuff

With my RNLI hat on, I would wonder why she was there in the first place.

A bit of a strange attitude for the RNLI, I'd say.  Presumably at least 1/2 your shouts are to people who with 20:20 hindsight should have "never been in the position in the first place".  I've always been impressed that RNLI volunteers didn't seem to judge those who made a bad decision.  It looked to me like she was highly likely to get wet (probably why she was there), likely to get washed off her feet (although she may not have perceived that risk) but unlikely to get washed off her feet and off the edge of the slip.  Of course unlikely things happen all the time.

But a big thanks to the person who could be bothered

Equally as strange an attitude.  Clearly there were a number of people who were doing something.  One who put themselves directly in harms way - would you rather your lifeboat shout was to one teenage girl and one member of public or one teenage girl and seven members of the public?   The coastguard recommended steps are 999, tell them to float, throw equipment to them, don't go in yourself - so everyone you say couldn't be bothered was actually doing exactly what your MCGA colleagues advise.  I'm not saying I would never enter the water - but its easy to be a hero from home.

There was. someone threw it in just after she was plucked from the briney

That was the one they ran off to get, came from somewhere out of shot on the right.

With my RNLI hat on, I would wonder why she was there in the first place.
A bit of a strange attitude for the RNLI, I’d say

I suspect that not being outwardly judgemental is what they pride themselves on, otherwise they'd pick and choose their shouts. That doesn't stop them from having human thoughts and occasionally thinking, 'WTF were you doing?'.

Holiday makers get caught out by the sea in Ilfracombe most summers

This happened the day before a few hundred yards away

See this regularly down the beach near me. Kids run into the receding void left by the previous 500ton of water smashing onto the beach, to turn and run up before the next 500 tons arrives.

Parents look on from a safer distance oblivious, staring at their phones or taking a video for insta likes. Morons.

Some polite education is usually heeded. But often i get  abuse..

I sea swim, windsurf,  and sup./surf. There are some conditions that are pretty dangerous, cross rip currents, hollow 6ft dumps, confused sea states with offshore winds etc

Would i have gone in, probably in that sea. Be safer to get away from the structure, out into green open water. If ypu look at the video the sea just a few meters away is  calmer. No white water just a rolling swell. This time of year the sea is warm so little chance of cold water shock.

Best is to get a rope out of course. Or any flotation device. Locally a girl went in to save a person, which turned out to be a seal. She jumped off a bridge. Sparked a massive search for the victim, needed rescue herself, no wetsuit, in winter.

Not just kids that need rescuing

This is very judgemental. It’s not the role of the RNLI to stop people doing risky activity. Educate and inform, but not restrict.

Is that not what educating and informing ultimately does from a self-policing standpoint?

I've had to tell people out by the jetty in my former job to get away during storms. Standing in the middle of breaking waves totally unaware that the water is capable of shifting the huge boulders piled around the edge of the car park. If you got swept out there it would probably be easier to look for you in the sea water pump trash baskets at the end of the intake.

I suppose all the bystanders could have been more effective if they had got their phones out and recorded for social media ?

Well done the man who dragged her out and the other one who got the life ring. And even the girl herself who was swimming in the direction of the calmer harbour and a point of possible rescue.

Adults can be even dafter. At Aber' students used to run between two lots of steps between waves. One didn't make it.

Would I have gone in?  Not up to the point she was rescued, I'd have been encouraging her to swim around to the calmer water staying away from the wall (given that other people had already gone for the ring). She was doing OK, I think people made good decisions. At 35 I might have gone in anyhow certain of my ability, but at 63 I swim twice a week and I'm aware of my limits - like most of the people shown in the vid I'd guess.

Your story is tragic, irc.

Innocent bystanders - get in the sea.

As well as the danger of being swept away from safety, the odds of being knocked out by either the railing or the concrete slipway are pretty high.

I watched the original footage on the news, and I was horrified watching the girl stood where she was with those waves, I knew what was going to happen, and knowing there was nothing I could do.
My only reaction would have been to find a life ring, I cannot swim, and even if I could, I know enough about rough seas to know that I’d almost certainly have been another casualty. I kept expecting her to be slammed against the railing and/or the slipway, I couldn’t believe she managed to swim out and around to the end and get pulled onto the jetty. Unbelievably lucky, and should be a clear warning to keep away from storm waves like those. Sadly, people don’t, and there will be more like that.

It’s just the same along the beach from Burnham to Brean, the tide is the second highest in the world, and goes out about a mile, and the beach is nearly six miles long. There’s large stretches of thick, deep mud, often with a thin coating of sand, and signs and notices, saying ‘Warning - soft sand and mud. Danger of sinking’, do visitors pay attention? No. They have a hovercraft at Burnham now, after a five year old child wandered out towards the water and got stuck. All the rescuers had then were duck boards to lay on the mud. She drowned before they could get to her. The hovercraft gets around 200 calls a year, because of stupidity.

I’ve been in the rescuer position. What I wanted from people was mostly for them to stay out of the way.