A father and son were rescued on Saturday after they were thrown from their fishing boat
A father and son had a lucky escape on
Saturday following a freak engine accident that saw them thrown into the sea
and circled by their vessel.
Their fishing boat’s engine had broken down
and the pair were attempting to fix it when it restarted in gear and was set to
full speed.
The men were immediately thrown into the
water and the fishing boat continued to circle out of control around them for
40 minutes.
The vessel only came to a stop when it ran
out of fuel and the younger man was able to climb back on board and send out a
Mayday distress call.
Meanwhile, his father had been carried
nearly a quarter of a mile from the boat by the tide.
Volunteer crewman Cameron Bond who
responded to the distress call, said: “When we pulled the man from the sea he
was shaking violently and couldn’t speak.
“I knew from my RNLI training that I had to
get the guy back to the beach as fast as I could so the crew from the lifeboat
station could give him first aid.”
Both men were taken ashore and then
transferred to the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough by
ambulance.
The Redcar lifeboat later returned to the
scene to tow the fishing boat back to land, where volunteers put the boat on
its trailer.
Redcar RNLI’s Dave Cocks, said: “The two
men have had an extremely lucky escape. There have been some tragic accidents
involving boats when people are thrown into the sea and the boat’s engine keeps
going.
“It was extremely fortunate that one of our
own lifeboat crew members was at sea fishing when the Mayday went out. He was
quickly on scene to rescue the man from the water; otherwise it could have been
tragic.
“Both men really owe a lot to the RNLI’s
training on this occasion.”
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