Lifeguards warned women 3x
2008-01-10 22:35
Wilderness - A young woman has drowned and her friend was rescued just in time after they got into trouble in the Touw River lagoon.
Hennie Niehaus, head of the local National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) office, said a woman in her 20s encountered difficulties when she tried to retrieve her friend's floating body from the lagoon.
The NSRI received the emergency call at about 16:26 on Thursday and they rushed to the scene along with the police and Netcare 911's ambulance service.
"When we got there, the survivor was slumped on the shore, on the George-side of the train bridge. She was exhausted and showing symptoms of secondary drowning."
They 'just disappeared'
The NSRI's paramedic and ambulance staff treated her on the spot, before taking her by ambulance to George Hospital.
The Xhosa-speaking woman did not say much, except that she had got into trouble when she tried to retrieve her friend's body from the water.
Niehaus said the other woman's body was drifting in shallow water near the opposite shore when they arrived.
"Some of our members retrieved her body from the water."
"She had already died and her remains were handed to the police," Niehaus said.
He said the lagoon fell away suddenly, and if a person couldn't swim it could be dangerous to venture into the rapidly flowing (incoming) tide.
Riana Smalberger, head of Outeniqua Surf Rescue said: "The two women spent the whole day on the beach and my lifeguards warned them three times to swim between the flags on the beach.
"Eventually they disappeared."
Two traffic officials saw that they were in trouble and alerted the emergency services.
"Two of my lifeguards ran around from the beach and managed to save one." The other woman had already drowned.
"The strong force of the incoming tide apparently dragged the other woman, 18-year-old Joyce Tombizani of Thembalethu Zone 3, out of the lagoon into the sea," Captain Malcolm Pojie said on Thursday.
Police were investigating the incident.