Speedboat killed SAS hero’s girl
A YOUNG woman died after being struck by a boat propeller while snorkelling in Malaysia, an inquest heard.
Madaline Cole, the daughter of an SAS veteran, was seriously injured when she and a friend were hit by a speedboat at a popular diving spot in the South China Sea.
The boat’s pilot pulled the 25-year-old from the water and took her to a hospital ten minutes away. But when she arrived, there were no doctors present.
Her Australian friend, Simon Rogers, suffered minor injuries in the accident off the island of Pulau Perhentian.
An inquest at Herefordshire Coroner’s Court was told newly qualified diving instructor Miss Cole had been snorkelling outside the safe swimming area marked by buoys.
Malaysian police said she did not have a ‘safety sausage’ – a small float that indicates she was under the water – and concluded her death on May 27, 2013, was an accident.
But Miss Cole’s father, Bob Cole, 63 – who also served in the Royal Engineers and saw action in the Gulf – said he believed boats were being driven too fast near divers.
He flew to the area the day after the accident, when he said he was told by Miss Cole’s boyfriend, Ross Makulec, that a marker used to pinpoint the location of the collision was placed incorrectly. Mr Cole told the inquest: ‘Maddy wasn’t the first person to be hit by a boat there. I watched that area for hours and noticed that boat drivers have a lot of bravado and like to skim along the beach close to the buoy line.’
Miss Cole, from Bodenham, Herefordshire, arrived in Malaysia with her boyfriend on April 4 and had been staying at the Senja Bay resort on Perhentian Besar island since May 9. She had qualified as a diving instructor only three months before she was killed.
Herefordshire coroner Mark Bricknell recorded a verdict of accidental death on Wednesday. Afterwards, Miss Cole’s mother Jill, 63, said: ‘Justice hasn’t been done.’