Drone footage is internet hit
AN amateur drone pilot’s astonishing footage of a taxi attempting to drive across a submerged North Sea causeway has gone viral.
Mark Bradshaw, who was born and grew up in Accrington, captured the incident – which has now clocked up more than three million views around the world – on his camera near Berwick-upon-Tweed as the hapless driver tried to cross the causeway from Holy Island to mainland Northumbria despite the rising sea tide.
The driver eventually made it to safe ground - a point on the bridge just above the tide but still in the middle of the sea.
The unlucky passengers – including a Buddhist monk who stopped to wave at the camera – were left to wait for rescue from the RNLI.
Mark, 41, who was brought up on Pendleton Avenue in Springhill, said: “I was there to photograph the island and when the tide was up I started flying my drone to get some aerial shots.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw this taxi was trying to get across the causeway.
“It was comical, but I also knew it could be serious.”
Mark became interested in aerial photography while coping with posttraumatic stress disorder after leaving the Army, which he had served in since he was 16.
The former Rhyddings High School pupil, who now lives in Seaton Burn, with his wife Nadine and three children, said: “I used to love photography so I started doing aerial photography on the drone at the beginning of this year. People said I had a really keen eye for details and that was nice, feeling like I was belonging somewhere again.
“The depression hasn’t gone away but now I have the tools to cope with it and the photography is part of that.”