Woman Drowns After Police Threaten to Arrest the Men Who Were Rescuing Her -

Woman Drowns After Police Threaten to Arrest the Men Who Were Rescuing Her -



This reminds me of a sad story which took place in Ayrshire, Scotland.  A woman took a short cut home, over rough ground, after an evening out. She strayed off the path and fell down an entry airway shaft to a disused mine.

Passers by or dog walkers heard her cries next morning and phone calls were made. The police and fire services attended.  Her distance down was a matter of some 10 to 15 feet and the fire guys decided to go down a short ladder and get her sorted.  Pretty sensible to me!!!  So they get on the radio with their plan.

A return radio call tells them no.  They must await a specialist mountaineering unit, which will travel from the North of Scotland, where the mountains are, down to Ayrshire, which is pretty flat!!  If they continued they would be disciplined and outwith insurance yada yada.

As the mines in Ayrshire are all closed, there is no mines rescue unit, which might have helped quicker. The nearest operating one is on the East Coast where a few mines are still open. The quandary being, of course, the what if question.........fair point. But there were nearer than the mountain group. It was a fire service call, not the Coal Board, even though it was their workings involved.

They were all shouting back and forward, down the hole and could see her moving. They dropped water and sandwiches, on string, while waiting and waiting...........The woman died of shock and exposure before the mountain section arrived!! But they did go down and bring up her body for a funeral !