Beach Rescue 9/04/2010

[robin-baldwin]

Last night, having been out, I had just got home at 2330hr and slipped into bed without waking my wife when the ‘phone rang.
It was one of our Team Leaders who had been called to assist in the recovery of a Police Land Rover that was stuck on the beach with a fast rising tide. I got dressed again and was on scene within 15 minutes of the call to find the LR with water above the top of the wheel arches. By the time I’d got a couple of recovery ropes out the water had nearly covered the wing tops.
A local recovery firm were also on scene with 2 lorries but couldn’t get them on to the beach but they had brought a Teleporter that was already on the beach. Unfortunately they couldn’t get very close to the LR but with the use of several winch cables and recovery ropes we were able to reach it and with a fair degree of effort the vehicle was recovered.
Apparently the Officer, a PCSO (Police Community Support Officer), was looking for a missing person who was found at home!!. Needless to say the on-duty Sergeant (one of our members and a very experienced winch challenge competitor) was not impressed with the driving ability of the PCSO.

I did take some pictures with my pocket compact camera but they are not very good as I couldn’t get very close and it was very dark with no moon

[Dan Yoshiro]

Well done on rescuing the land rover.

Its a shame, the police officers are given these vehicles with no training whatsoever on their abilities :(

[Jamie_Hewison]

Well done on rescuing the land rover.

Its a shame, the police officers are given these vehicles with no training whatsoever on their abilities :(

there was a police land rover disco 4 stuck on the cheviot hills up my way last week, it had a winch fitted but the 2 coppers wernt allowed to use it because they hadnt been trained! had they been able to use it they could have quite easily gotten them selves free by use of a tree about 8 foot away.

another sign of health and safety regs gone mad! a police vehicle off the road for 3 hours due to lack of training.

[robin-baldwin]

Hopefully pictures attached, unfortunately fairly poor quality, as the Land Rover was quite a long way away in the dark and the Battenburg markings just reflect all available light.

[nigel leyland]

Well done Robin...not only for recovery the motor but scooping a massive dose of PR......

I have to disagree with you Jamie, I'd much rather see the motor out of duty for a few hours due to being stuck, than one of the officers off duty for however long due to an accident resulting from using equipment they are not qualified to use....

What's required in both the scenarios above is apropriate training in the use of equipment supplied.

Nigel.