Hero's tragic attempt at saving five-year-old from drowning

Saturday, 11 November 2017

Bernard Riedl, pictured here hours after the tragedy, dived in to try and save a drowning boy but was unable to.

The man who tried to save a drowning boy on a North Auckland beach on Saturday believed he would also die in the water.

Bernard Riedl, 28, dived off the Torpedo Bay wharf in his underwear after the five-year-old fell into the sea and a man yelled 'jump!'.

The five-year-old boy had been reported missing after falling from a wharf in Torpedo Bay at around 3pm on Saturday afternoon.

The boy had been on a family excursion at the time, and was unable to be revived by emergency services when he was pulled from the water around 3.15pm.

Riedl said he didn't see the family, but heard the boy's mother screaming: 'It was all I could hear … the most horrible screams', he recounted afterwards from his home in Bayswater.

Police and ambulance staff at Torpedo Bay Navy Museum Wharf in North Head.

He said the water was choppy and that the boy had been 'really, really struggling' to keep afloat.

'I swam to him and he put his hands around my neck, hanging on for dear life,' he said.

'But it was so rough, and I could feel myself drowning. I was trying to make sure both of us could get air.

'I'd suck in water, but had to keep going. I tried lying on my back, but at that point he detached. I was so weak by that point that I couldn't do anything and I thought I was going to die.'

Riedl said he was in the water for maybe ten minutes, before getting washed near the shore. He dragged himself out of the sea and walked back to the wharf, where he gave a statement to police.

'I thought someone would come and help us; I was waiting for help but no one came,' he said.

An onlooker told him the boy had been recovered by the coastguard, but that he didn't know if the child was alive or dead.

When Riedl knew for sure the boy he'd tried to save had died, he said he felt 'winded'.

'My adrenaline had been rushing, but not enough to save the boy,' he said. 'I'll always feel bad about that.'

Reidl had returned from a stint teaching English in Russia just three weeks prior to the drowning.

He said he believed the boy was Chinese, as police had been asking for Mandarin translators at the scene.

It had been a busy day on the wharf near the Navy Museum, he said. Families were fishing, and people were out on walks in the fine weather.

The museum was cordoned off by police for several hours after the accident, while witnesses were interviewed.

Inspector Jason Greenhalgh said police offered their sympathies to the friends and family of the young boy 'at this tragic time'.

He said the boy's death will be referred to the Coroner.