Couple killed in buggy plunge ‘were trying to reverse near ravine’
THE British couple who died in a buggy accident on Santorini fell 650ft after the husband accidentally reversed into a ravine, it was claimed yesterday.
Teachers Milly and Toby Savill hired the off-road vehicle on the second day of their Easter holiday on the Greek island.
A worker at the buggy rental company they had used said that during a drive up the island’s highest mountain, Mr Savill attempted to turn the vehicle around. But as the 26-year-old reversed he misjudged the amount of space behind him – and unknowingly inched towards a cliff edge.
The worker said that by the time he realised his mistake it was too late, and the buggy’s momentum took them over the edge and into the ravine.
The road was dubbed a ‘death trap’ by locals last year after a Dutch tourist driving a quad bike was killed in the same place, with safety campaigners calling for a fence at that spot to protect motorists.
Soldiers patrolling a nearby military depot saw the couple’s Quadzilla Z800 buggy through binoculars and raised the alarm at about 2.30pm on Sunday. The emergency services were called, but struggled to reach the couple on the rocky terrain beneath Profitis Ilias mountain, a popular spot with holidaymakers.
Eight firefighters eventually removed the bodies from the ravine in the early hours of Monday. The couple were declared dead at the scene.
The buggy rental worker said it was ‘the most tragic accident’ and that Mr Savill had ‘miscalculated’ the distance to the high ledge. Police said the couple had rented the buggy in the town of Fira about an hour before the accident, and a coroner from Athens carried out a
‘Lifetime of grief begins this week’
post-mortem examination on Thursday. The couple’s bodies are due to be flown back to London so funerals can take place.
The Savills, who got married in August 2017, met through Durham University’s Christian Union. Mrs Savill, 25, was a teacher at St Anne’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Vauxhall, South London, and her husband taught history at the Ark Evelyn Grace Academy in nearby Brixton.
Relatives and friends have paid tribute to the couple. Mr Savill’s friend Jordan Harrison called them ‘the epitome of joy and love’ and wrote on Facebook: ‘He was quite simply the best person we ever knew. A lifetime of grief begins this week for everyone who knew them. He was a true angel, who found his true soulmate in Milly.’
Mrs Savill’s father Steve Coulson, vicar of St Mark’s church in Kennington, South London, said the couple were ‘utterly devoted’ to each other.