Drowned mums dragged out to sea by giant wave
Two British mothers drowned in Spain after one tried to rescue the other during a late-night holiday swim, a court heard.
Lisa Coggins, 35, and Tracey Aston, 32, were swept out to sea after being hit by 15ft-high waves at Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava.
The pair had been for a night out with friends when Miss Aston decided to go for a dip in the seemingly ‘calm’ calf-high waters at around 2.45am with fellow holiday-goer Joanne Worth.
But moments after they began paddling a giant wave knocked them over. Miss Worth, 33, was pushed towards the shore but Miss Aston was dragged out to sea.
As Miss Worth was pulled to safety by others in the group, mother- of- two Miss Coggins dived into the sea to try and reach Miss Aston, but was also swept out to sea. A local barman raised the alarm, but after 20 minutes the women, both from Castle Bromwich, Birmingham, disappeared from view and a helicopter crew was unable to locate them.
Yesterday Birmingham Coroner’s Court heard their bodies were found six hours later, a mile-and-a-half from where they went missing on october 1 last year.
A post- mortem found Miss Aston and Miss Coggins had 1.45g and 1.9g of alcohol per litre of blood respectively at the time of their deaths – around twice the legal drink-drive limit.
Coroner Louise Hunt recorded a conclusion of accidental death due to asphyxia for both women. She said: ‘This is just an absolute tragedy when a young woman went with friends into the sea and was just not able to judge how rough the sea was in such a shallow part of the bay.’
The inquest heard the women had been on a four- day break with Miss Worth and sisters Italia
‘Devastating
tragedy’
Kilmister and Grazia Sassona.
In a witness statement, Miss Kilmister said that after leaving a club at around 2.30am, the group walked along the beach.
‘Joanne and Tracey ran down to the sea,’ she said. ‘Both ran a few steps and then... fell down and couldn’t regain their footing. A few waves threw them around... A large wave came and pushed Joanne towards the shore, but took Tracey backwards and out.’
She added that as Miss Sassona went to ask for help ‘Lisa came down to see what was going on... She started to shout to Tracey as she entered the water. Suddenly she was pulled down by the water that wasn’t any higher than her calves... The barman said not to swim against the current, so she went away from the shore.
‘Tracey held onto a life buoy, then a large wave came and knocked her off the buoy. I saw her tread water for about 20 minutes and then she went under.’
After the inquest, Miss Aston’s mother Tina Tysall said the ‘devastating tragedy... could have been prevented had there been proper safety measures in place’.
‘Tracey lived for her family and would never have put herself in any danger,’ she said. ‘There was no warning signs on that beach. There was no sign.. .of any danger.’