Barrow Lifeboat Station’s volunteer crew launched their Inshore lifeboat this evening following reports that a speedboat had overturned in Walney Channel.
At 5:50pm on the 14th July 2019, three Fire Engines from Walney, Ulverston and Barrow attended a report of persons in water on the promenade, Barrow-in-Furness.
The request RNLI for assistance came from the HM Coastguard base in Holyhead, at 6:07pm.
The information received was that a speedboat had overturned in the Walney Channel. It was further reported that there were three persons in the water with possible injuries.
The crew was paged and the inshore lifeboat, ‘Vision of Tamworth’, was launched at 6:12pm with Jonny Long at the helm, assisted by Ben Jackson and Mike Harris.
A Barrow RNLI spokesman said: “The lifeboat proceeded north along Walney Channel at full speed and shortly after arriving at the scene, north of Jubilee Bridge, was advised by HM Coastguard that the speedboat was now ashore on the Ferry Pitchings and that all persons had been accounted for.
“The casualties were safe and placed in the care of the North West Ambulance Service.
“There was a multi-agency response to the incident with Furness and Millom Coastguard Rescue Teams and Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service also in attendance.
“The lifeboat returned to the boathouse at 7pm where it was cleaned and made ready for the next launch.”
A Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: “This was a small boat that had hit the shoreline, two casualties had been ejected from the boat and were transported to hospital.
“One further casualty was in the boat and suffering possible spinal injuries.
“A swift water team from the fire service worked with paramedics to immobilise and extricate the casualty from the boat.
“The casualty was then passed to the care of ambulance crews.
“Fire crews were in attendance for approximately forty minutes.”
The wind at the time of the incident was north-westerly, Force 2-3, and the low tide had just passed at 5:13pm with a height of 1.9 metres.
