Rescuers at risk after cars sent over cliffs
Wednesday 18th May 2011, 1:00PM BST.
Wrecked cars at the foot of cliffs at Pleinmont after they were apparently deliberately driven into each other in the car park above. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 1136860)
GUERNSEY’S cliff rescue team potentially risked their lives checking three cars for injured people after the vehicles plunged over cliffs on the south side of Pleinmont.
The cars were seen yesterday morning at the foot of the cliff by dog walkers. It is thought the vehicles had been sent over the edge on Monday evening.
Wreckage was scattered on the rock face and in a nearby car park, where it appeared the vehicles – a silver Fiesta, a green Rover 24 and a blue Skoda – had been deliberately crashed into one another.
Glass, plastic and a bumper were strewn over the area, with broken glass on the approach road.
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Trace the cars owners, send them a bill.
Simples.
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Using the tax disc/reg plate or what ever means is available I would like to see the owners identified and fined (heavly).
On the counts of litter (on public land) and putting others at risk for no cause.
There will no doubt be a clear up cost for this and I don’t see why my tax should pay for it.
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Not so ‘Simples’ if these vehicles had been stolen from the owners Mark!
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@ Mark not so simples if the cars were stolen would you want a bill from St John’s if your car was nicked.
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Mark:
I take it the cars were not stolen then?
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Try North beach on any night of the week, ask the right questions, get the undercover guys in there it would be easy to figure out who it was most people will know.
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Thanks ‘expat gsy’. Cars are involved and the finger is instantly pointed at us ‘Kevs’.
You do realise we value our automobiles, don’t you? Hence the reason the majority of us happen to spend so much time in our beloved cars…
Or did the mouth speak before the cogs in the brain had a chance to rotate?
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Expat: get the undercover guys in there will do no good, unless they use some kind of hearing aid. The truth is always told to anyone who asks just select groups
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Could be the Guernsey Boys clearing another site.
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@FireStar
Quite right too; so long as you maintain your enjoyment of your cars in a safe and responsible manner and don’t endanger other road users, cyclists and pedestrians, feel free to be a crowd of Kevs.
You won’t remember, ask your Gran – at one time the Pollet and lower High Street was a through way for traffic and many people of a much, much older generation spent their evenings going round and round and up and down, doing exactly what you do and enjoying it. One previously high ranking Civil Servant kept a mattress in the back of his van ….?
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The headline for this article is “Rescuers put at risk after cars sent over the cliff”. Why?
Why risk rescuers lives? Why not view the scene from the sea from one of those inshore rescue boats that our emergency services have?
Nobody HAD to go over the top. The area was calm and sheltered from the northerly winds on Monday so a good pair of binoculars would have seen anyone in or around the cars from the sea.
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Mark makes a very good statement, those saying “oh they might be stolen” well the police should get the numbers of those cars find the owners and have a chat, if they were stolen then it’s an even bigger punishment to these idiots.
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@Nocon – the suggestion of evaluating the situation from a boat is utterly unrealistic. The approach to this bay is treacherous and to try and determine whether someone is in the car using binoculars is simply not viable.
Going over the top with ropes is not nearly as dangerous as a seaward approach and although there are risks involved, there shouldn’t be any problems for trained individuals. I have been going down there for many years, without ropes, as have other locals, in the pursuit of lost fishing gear and the like.
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Donkey`s Wotsits,
If you and other intrepid local Torteval Rednecks have been going down there for years without ropes then why are the Rescue Service heros moaning about it being unsafe? They must be whimps them eh?
I guess in future we don`t need them, we can just phone you and your mates to do the job you`re obviously more qualified as idiots.
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@Nocon
You clearly don’t know the area – there’s practically a path to the beach, following a small stream in a shallow valley a little distance eastwards. It’s not a ‘take your kids and a picnic’ kind of thing but it’s far easier than dangling over steeper sections on ropes. However, I appreciate that when faced with a possible casualty, they have to get down there pretty quick.
I don’t think a little local knowledge makes me an idiot. Have any ‘Torteval Rednecks’ led to a call out of the Rescue Service recently?
As far as the story is concerned, the Rescue Service are right to moan because they shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of thing. The true idiots are the ones ditching cars off the cliffs.
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From flying over the cliffs I believe the emergency services paint a large ‘X’ on the roof of all cars which are pushed over the top.
Therefore whenever a car is seen without an ‘X’ on the top means it has just gone over. Rescue services then have to go down to make sure no one is inside, or lying injured/dead in a gully nearby.
Therefore the rescuers cannot check the cars from a safe distance, and have to mark the roof with another ‘X’ to show it has been checked (so they don’t get called out again).
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Donkey`s Wotsitss,
Have you information that the people responsible weren`t Torteval rednecks? It seems to me something they`d think up to pass there lonely nights.
Town dweller,
If anyone is stupid enough to drive over a cliff they deserve to be left there to feed the rats.
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@Nocon
Based on your comment to Town Dweller, I won’t be wasting any more time responding to you.
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Bad parenting springs to mind.
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Howzabout, John, Truth Man
In which case the owner simply refers them to the police to confirm that they had indeed reported their car as stolen. Not difficult to establish a timeline of events assuming people are telling the truth.
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