Paddleboarding tragedy (why did she do this?)

[PassingStranger]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/former-cops-grovelling-voice-note-35105323

Did anyone else see this on the news?
4 people died
Horrific, imagine their panic.

What was behind this desire to take them out, when she shouldn't have.
I'll presume it was money sadly.😢

I'm glad she got prison.

Stupidity and over confidence. She was confident she knew what she was doing and was too stupid to realise she didn't, no excuse at all..

She will serve the whole sentence because when let out of prison early, she will be on licence and will be supervise and will have a few specific conditions to obey.

@jasflowers could you explain a bit more about weirs and the functions of the various bits? Or point me in the direction of a 'weirs for dummies' type website?

I'm not a fan of water deeper than a metre and preferably not moving water.

It doesn't look like they were well prepared for what they had planned to do for the day.

Few people wearing PFDs
Inadequate clothing for the day
It was late October when it happened. The river and the estuary wouldn't have been that warm.
A river in flood. What was the current like downstream?
It someone had fallen in upstream of the weir, they could easily have been swept towards the weir
If someone had fallen in downstream, they could have been swept along with the current and would have been at risk of hypothermia

It was a poorly planned trip - and the people on it seemed to have some prior experience of paddle boarding so should have taken some responsibility themselves for appropriate clothing and PFDs even if they were paying to go on the trip.

There should have been a risk assessment done - including clothing requirements and PFD requirements.

Yes i could have added "at their level of skill" but thats pretty obvious isn't it?

It was Gross negligence. It wasn’t just a poor decision in the day. She had no risk assessment, she wasn’t qualified,
there was no safety briefing and the participants were not even told about the weir. She’s not right in the head clearly.

In response to the 'could it happen again' the answer is yes. Currently there is strict regulation of offering adventurous activities to Children but the only legislation covering adults is the general health & safety legislation. It is only because of the extreme nature of the failures in this case that they were able to bring gross negligence charges against her.

It is a very difficult area to legislate because no matter what you do there is an inherent risk in all watersports, mountaineering activities etc that can be reduced significantly but never eliminated without changing the activity. Walking on a ridge with 1000 ft drops will always have the risk of falling off no matter how well run. I think there also needs to be more to ensure people understand the risks and accept them if they chose.

'there was no safety briefing and the participants were not even told about the weir.'

This is staggering, how on earth did she think they'd navigate it? Understandable if on kayaks perhaps but paddleboarding is a standing thing isn't it?

Were they all beginners do we know?

I used to do a lot of white water kayaking and when I read about the story I immediately knew what kind of weir the one in Haverfordwest would be. First photo I saw confirmed it.

That kind of weir, with a vertical drop off, is notoriously dangerous. So much so that they are colloquially known as 'drowning machines' among white water paddlers. Even without the river being in flood, it's an extreme hazard because the water circulates and drags you constantly back towards the weir. With the river in flood it's only luck that they didn't all drown.

It's not a matter of experience, these weirs are extremely dangerous no matter how much experience you have, as demonstrated by the death of the instructor who was very fit and experienced in watersports.

You always come out and 'portage' (walk with your watercraft) round a hazard like that. The fact she didn't do this suggests she had absolutely no idea of the risks of moving water. Honestly, it is pretty much the first thing you learn when you do the most basic moving water safety course.

See my post above, but also the link below for a much more detailed explanation: https://practical.engineering/blog/2019/3/16/drowning-machine-the-dangers-of-low-head-dams

This. I’ve met a few narcissist types who think they can get away with anything they want and who are generally deluded and believe they are capable of things that others aren’t. Apparently she was posting happy photos of herself partying, on social media only a few days later. That fits with the sort of personality type described.

When I first read it,I was shocked and thought it was a very extreme response.

Once I read the entire story,I could see why she was given that sentence.

So arrogant and pointless loss of lives.

At the time, she was on sick leave from the police with stress.

So running a business and getting paid by the police at the same time.

Didn’t she get sacked from the police because of insurance fraud? Or did that come later?

From the report

"Much has been made of the fact that you were running your Salty Dog business whilst first suspended from firearms duty and then off sick with stress and anxiety and continued to run it even after permission for your sideline business had been withdrawn by your employer. It is an unattractive feature of the case that does not reflect well on you, but it does not amount to an aggravating feature

One month she won best business of the year
Really

She’ll only do 5 years - so not even 1.5 years per victim.

gross negligence manslaughter does not need intent. that would give 18 years

Kayaks? It would be completely unsafe in a kayak

If she is let out of prison early, she would serve the rest of the sentence on licence being under supervision and will have to obey conditions she will get given.

Yep. That still would have been too dangerous in a kayak. The conditions made it even more so.

Well, yes, I agree, but it's not just paddle boards and kayaks. I live by the sea on a coastline known for rip tides and the number of kids out on the big rubber rings and inflatable dinghies they just bought from the shop. Parents watching from the beach. Fat lot of good they'll be when their 8 year old who can barely swim a width of the local pool gets swept out.

None of it should be sold in my opinion.

I have seen those types of weirs IRL and there's notices about the danger as well. In the report on the incident a pp posted upthread, one of the pictures clearly showed a 'caution' notice.

This is an awful tragedy and makes me shudder when I think of our past paddleboard excursions.

In August 2020 we were in Cornwall and booked an introduction to SUP, as a family, DC being 9 and 12 then. Thinking back it was way too windy, only DH was able to sit up, not stand up, only sit on the board. The sea was just too choppy. My board got pulled towards the outer sea so the organiser had to come and get me with a boat. It was August but we all had wetsuits and life jackets but I don’t remember anything about safety talks.

Two years later DH and I tried again in our local area with a local instructor. She was hot on the safety, spent a long time explaining everything and also had the waist release rather than the ankle ones.

I have to fess up that I never thought of all the safety aspects, I guess I just trusted the instructors and that they know what they are doing. But now I think how wrong that Cornwall one could have gone. I know about riptides but had no idea about weirs, I would have been completely clueless how dangerous they are. I’m not a native Brit though and don’t think my country has them.

"I guess I just trusted the instructors and that they know what they are doing"

Someone says they are an instructor - and people take that at face value. A lot of trust does go into someone when they say they are an instructor and it's hard to challenge someone who says they are an instructor when you start to get into a situation that could be dangerous.