Propeller death of mum who fell from boat on the Broads
A MOTHER-OF-THREE was killed by the propellers of a pleasure boat after falling overboard.
Laura Perry, 38, was holidaying on the Norfolk Broads with eight other family members when the 42ft vessel struck the bank while turning.
She tumbled from the aft deck into the River Bure and was trapped under the boat.
Emergency services including a team of divers spent around 90 minutes battling to release her body. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Miss Perry had fallen from Diamond Emblem 1, a cruiser rented from Broads holiday company Ferry Marina, based in Horning, Norfolk.
Similar ten-berth boats are rented for £2,800 a week during the peak summer season.
Miss Perry, who had studied at Guy’s Hospital School of Nursing in London, was described by her family as ‘incredibly caring’ to her sons – aged between four and 16.
Her family said in a statement: ‘She treasured her boys and embraced every minute spent with them on a multitude of trips, adventures, holidays and “memory-making”.
‘She loved them and their father, James Allen, very deeply.’ An interim report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch revealed the tragedy happened after the family tried to moor at Great Yarmouth Yacht Station but found it was full.
They were turning the boat around when its stern ‘made hard contact with the embankment wall’ opposite the yacht station. Police, firemen, paramedics and coastguards raced to the scene in around 20 vehicles, along with lifeboats and an air ambulance after the mother from Bermondsey, south-east London, disappeared under the boat.
A post-mortem examination found Miss Perry had died from ‘multiple injuries and drowning due to or a consequence of entrapment beneath a boat following a fall into the water’.
Another holidaymaker was killed on the Broads a month after Miss Perry when friends pushed him into the water from a cruiser as a prank. Simon Houlder, 29, was also slashed by the propeller while trying to get back on board.
Broads Authority chief John Packman said: ‘As with any activity on the water, there are risks involved and to minimise these it is important that everyone follows safety advice for using the waterways.’
The MAIB’s final report will be published after a consultation period. A full inquest will also be heard at a later date.