Wife's screams alerted bystanders to Napier drowning

Tuesday, 1 November 2016

A wife's screams as she watched her husband drown pierced a beautiful Napier afternoon.

The man was swimming along Marine Parade Beach when he got into trouble on Tuesday.

People nearby said they heard a woman screaming for help and saw her running towards the shoreline just after 3pm.

Bystandersrushed to help the man, believed to be in his 40s, but were unable to reach him.

Wes Jardine, 20, who assisted the wife of a man who drowned along Marine Parade on Tuesday.

The Lowe Rescue Helicopter was called to the scene and got the man out of the water.

Emergency services worked on the man but could not revive him.

The Lowe Rescue Helicopter was called in to retrieve a body from the sea off Marine Parade in Napier.

Labourer Jerome Ruhi was working opposite the beach when he heard the woman screaming.

'We had seen the couple earlier in the day. I heard the scream and I saw her running towards the beach,' he said.

Emergency services at a central Napier beach where a man drowned.

'I saw him out there. We went towards her and nothing was happening.

'I got close to her and she saw me and she started screaming, 'Help',' he said.

Wes Jardine, 20, was working at the same construction site as Ruhi when he saw people gathering on the beach.

'I was standing on the scaffold and I saw a crowd of people wandering over. I thought they were looking at a seal. I looked out and saw a floating body.

'I saw the woman and she was in hysterics,' he said.

'I went and comforted her. I put my jacket around her and sat with her.'

Jardine said the man's wife had told them they had recently moved back to the area.

Amy Giddens, 20, was one of the two staff members who rushed from nearby Ocean Spa pools to help.

'One of the guys yelled out, 'We need a lifeguard, someone is drowning'.

'I swam out. I think I got the closest to him. The rope I had was not long enough, so I could not go out any further.'

The trainee lifeguard said the undercurrent was too strong, so she and her fellow staff member returned to shore.

'The police had begun to turn up at this stage. The helicopter came shortly afterwards.

'At the time the adrenaline kicked in. You have got to do what you have got to do.'

The couple may have been lulled into a false sense of safety because the Surf Life Saving building was directly opposite where the man drowned, she said.

'I really want there to be signs saying, 'No swimming'.

'It is not safe at all, there is such a strong undertow.'

Five people have drowned in the waves off Napier's Marine Pde since 1996.

The last drowning was of 5-year-old Jago Kara, who was swept away while playing at the water's edge in January 2008.

Josh McQuoid, 12, very nearly drowned in March 2013. It was only thanks to a dramatic rescue involving a human chain that he was rescued.

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