Grandad run over by rib boat and killed
AN INQUEST heard how a Gwynedd grandfather was tragically killed after being hit with a rib vessel while snorkelling in the Mediterranean.
Allan Stanley from Ceidio, near Pwllheli, died in June while swimming in the seas off the coast of Malta.
Mr Stanley, 76, was a carpenter who used to run the Period Pine shop in Penrhos near Pwllheli, often holidaying on the island of Gozo.
He’d been described by his granddaughter, Hannah, as “a happy-golucky kind of man who always had a smile on his face.”
His widow, Diane, told the inquest that on the morning of June 19, he had been snorkeling off Hondoc Bay and was returning to shore.
Metres away from reaching the land, Mr Stanley had waved to his wife. But just seconds after he put his head back below water, Mrs Stanley spoke of how a rib appeared out of nowhere and ran over her husband.
The driver of the vessel, a Maltese man, immediately stopped the craft while his brother went out to help Mr Stanley.
She recalled: “I don’t think the driv- er of the rib could have seen him over the front of the vessel, as Allan was underwater at the time.
“It just happened so quickly, a matter of seconds.”
The North West Wales Coroner, Dewi Pritchard, noted that the Maltese authorities had not co-operated with his requests for further information.
The only details he had were the eyewitness report and the pathologist’s post mortem examination.
Dr Mark Lord, who examined Mr Stanley’s body on June 30 after it was returned to the UK, remarked that very little water had entered his lungs, and the death had been caused by severe lacerations to his scalp and skull upon contact with the rib’s propeller.
Recording a verdict of accidental death, the coroner said: “Sadly, head injuries after being hit with a vessel’s propeller are not uncommon.
“We don’t know if the driver of the rib performed adequate checks to see if there was anyone in the water, but what we do know is that Mr Stanley was run over.
“There’s no evidence that Mr Stanley drowned, only that he sustained significant injuries during the collision.”