Two cousins have been killed in a boating accident in NSW’s New England region, with their grandfather at the controls when the teenage girls hit a submerged tree.
The 13 and 14-year-old girls were tubing behind a boat when they slammed into a the tree stump late yesterday afternoon.
A distraught Dale Jenner among locals who tried to save the teens and comfort their “devastated” grandfather, who was the skipper.
“We didn’t see it but I knew they were in trouble when they were in between the trees and the girls we saw on the tube weren’t on the tube anymore,” he said.
“It was just a freak accident I think.”
NSW Police Detective Superintendent Bruce Grassick said the boat was seized and will be examined.
The tragedy came amid a huge jump in water rescues across the state for the festive period.
A total of eight people have died in water-related accidents.я╗┐
An unprecedented 630 people were pulled to safety in just 72 hours, NSW Ambulance said.
That’s compared with я╗┐a total of 900 people saved in the entire month of December last year.
A large number of those needing to be rescued have been children, and many have needed to be resuscitated.
Authorities are concerned swimming lessons have fallen by the wayside during COVID lockdowns.
Dedicated volunteers even refused to leave some beaches at the end of their shifts, after hot weather saw thousands enjoy the surf.
“We heard over the radio that our volunteer lifesavers were refusing to vacate the beach at the closure at 6pm,” Steven Pearce from Surf Lifesaving NSW, said.я╗┐
“They didn’t want to leave the beach because we still had thousands of people on our coastline.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has urged people to take care.я╗┐
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