Girl, 11, cheats death off the Anglesey coast

THE Moelfre RNLI inshore Lifeboat was launched on Saturday, August 15 as an 11-year-old girl escaped from a car which plunged 250 feet off a cliff at Benllech.

The occupant, an 11-year-old girl, on a camping holiday from Kinmel Bay, was listening to music when she accidently knocked the hand brake off. As the car started to pick up speed rolling down the steep gradient towards the cliff edge she tried frantically to re-engage the brake and dived from the car just seconds before the car went over the cliff edge into the sea.

Paramedics, a Coast guard team from Moelfre and the police were also at the scene, and the young girl was treated for minor cuts before being transferred to Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor in an Ambulance.

When the Moelfre RNLI inshore Lifeboat arrived at the scene the volunteer crew took it in turns to dive under the water and search the vehicle before the Police established that everyone had been accounted for. The RNLI inshore Lifeboat crew then recovered loose items floating nearby and marked the car's position with a buoy.

Dave Massey Moelfre RNLI Lifeboat Press officer said:

‘Thankfully the young girl was extremely lucky this afternoon, and she had the presence of mind to jump from the vehicle when she did, it was an unbelievably close thing and to walk away with only minor injuries is a miracle. It was a real life or death situation; she would never have survived if she hadn’t had the foresight to jump. The Moelfre RNLI Lifeboat crew wish her a speedy recovery’.

Author: David Massey, RNLI Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer
Photograph: Benllech © Dave Roberts