BRADBY’S SORROW
Witness tells of newsreader’s devastation after his failed bid to rescue suicide driver
DRAMATIC eyewitness accounts emerged last night of ITV political editor Tom Bradby’s efforts to save the life of a drowning man in Greece.
The journalist jumped into the sea fully clothed after an elderly man drove his car off a harbour in an apparent suicide bid.
Brady, 48, recounted the tragic event in a series of tweets on Sunday, describing how he was left ‘shaking with shock’ afterwards.
Last night, a waiter who works at a restaurant close to the scene of the tragedy told how Bradby frantically tried to tie a rope to the sinking car to pull it back to the surface but it disappeared underwater in less than two minutes.
He said Bradby also tried to drag the man from the car through an open window and told of how upset he looked after he got out of the water.
Other witnesses told how the driver, named last night as 70-year-old Ioannis Venardos from Athens, had initially parked at the harbour in Rafina before reversing and accelerating into the sea.
The picturesque port – one of the main ferry links to the Greek islands, is surrounded by shops and restaurants and was bustling with tourists when the incident unfolded at around 5.30pm on Sunday.
The waiter, known only as Aimilios, said the first man in the water was a port authority worker who raced from his hut on the harbour side. ‘He jumped in but he could not get the man out, he was trying but he had opened the windows and locked the door,’ he said. He told how a
crowd started to gather and he rushed over to help.
‘The British journalist was in the water trying to help, I threw him a rope and he tried and tried to tie it to the car but it was too late, it sank very quickly, in less than two minutes. He looked very upset.’
Police said investigations into the accident were continuing, but sources it was believed to be suicide because the elderly man flung a piece of paper containing contact details for his family out of the car moments before plunging in the water.
Rafina is a port town on Attica’s east coast. It is Athens’ main fishing port but also handles passenger, tourist and freight traffic to the islands of the Cyclades.
Nikos Achlipis, who lives in Rafina, also witnessed the incident. He said it was the second time in recent weeks that a man had apparently tried to commit suicide in this way at the harbour – apparently over Greece’s economic crisis. Greece has reportedly seen suicide rates soar as people struggle with unemployment and debt.
Motorists can drive right to the water’s edge. The drop to the sea is around two metres, while the water is more than five metres deep.
‘He stopped, reversed and then accelerated into the sea,’ said Mr Achlipis. ‘He had locked the doors and had his hands on the wheel. He did not want to be saved. But we are used to it. Nobody has any money.’
Another eye-witness told how the elderly man refused offers to help him escape the sinking car. Restaurant worker Emilios Tzerimeas told MailOn-
‘He accelerated into the sea’
line: ‘I tried to help to get the man out of the car in the water but he pushed our hands away. The car floated on the surface of the water for about a minute but the driver refused to accept help to get out. It was truly shocking.’
Bradby, a friend of Princes William and Harry was on holiday with his family. It is not clear if his wife Claudia HillNorton, a jewellery designer, 46, and their three children, Jack, Louisa and Sam, were with him when he tried to save the man. In a series of messages posted on Twitter, he wrote: ‘Dived in, tried to help, couldn’t get him out. Completely shocking.’
Bradby, who is due to take over as the main presenter of ITV’s News at Ten this autumn, has not commented since revealing the incident on Twitter.