A YOUNG girl narrowly escaped a tragic fate on the Welsh coast after a dare turned perilous, leaving her clinging to life. The Coastguard was summoned to a tense double water rescue, involving the girl desperately holding onto a marker post at the end of a wooden beach groyne in Rhyl.
The Coastguard has since released the full details of the incident, which occurred last month, and the fortunate series of events that led to the girl’s rescue. The incident also served as a stark reminder of the dangers posed by the coastline. “We’re a team of 12 at Rhyl, and that evening we were at the station for a routine practice,” recalled Dylan, the Deputy Station Officer.
“It was a relaxed session, focusing on casualty care and mud rescue theory. We were just wrapping up when Ian stepped outside,” Dylan continued. “Ian had gone to stow some equipment in the back of our rescue vehicle, and fellow Coastguard Rescue Officer Andrea had accompanied him. The vehicle was parked facing the beaches and the sea, and as they chatted, Ian noticed something unusual.”
In the fading light, Station Officer Ian spotted a concerning sight. Against the backdrop of the rising tide, a young person was visible, desperately clinging to a marker post at the end of a beach groyne.
“Initially, it seemed like a child was above the water, with what appeared to be a family member wading towards them. But the more I looked, the more it became clear that this was an emergency,” Ian explained. He and Andrea immediately sprang into action, alerting the rest of the team and updating the operations room on the situation. A person who had begun moving towards the child appeared to be struggling, prompting Ian to instruct his team to prepare for a double water rescue.
“The team quickly donned their dry suits and lifejackets, and grabbed throw ropes, while I readied the Coastguard rescue vehicle to head about 300 metres to the beach. One of our team members ran down to speak to a person on the coast who was observing the scene, who turned out to be a friend of the man in the water,” Dylan added.
The situation became increasingly precarious as the wader reached the young person but found himself in danger, stuck at the end of the groyne while the teenager tried to find higher ground on a narrow sandbank, as waves crashed around her. The two coastguards, secured by rope lines, waded and swam towards the girl first, pulling her back to shore before returning to rescue the man.
“It soon became apparent that the girl was alone,” Ian noted. “We had assumed the man was a family member, but he was actually a bystander who had seen her in distress. It turned out she had been on the beach with friends, who dared her to go onto the sandbank. When she got into trouble, they ran off without seeking help, leaving her stranded.”
“Had we not spotted them, the outcome could have been very different,” Dylan remarked. “It takes some of our team 15 minutes to reach the station, and if we had been called from home that night, I truly believe the tide would have swept her away before we arrived.”
After the rescue, police officers obtained the young girl’s contact details and visited her home, only to find her parents in a state of panic, completely unaware that their daughter had gone to the beach. Additionally, it was discovered that the rescued man had a mobile phone but had failed to call 999 for the Coastguard.
