Photos: Andrew Shield
A surfer was killed today after being run over by a boat at Currumbin Alley. The 41 year old surfer was paddling back out into the line-up when he was struck by a man returning from a fishing trip in an aluminium runabout.
Currumbin Alley where todays accident occured.
“It was an accident waiting to happen.” said Peter Saunders, president of the Volunteer Marine Rescue “ the bar is notorious, it’s difficult enough to get in and out, let alone with all the surfers out there. The surfers think they own the place – you can’t control them.”
The precarious boat access at the Alley.
“The boat ended up on top of him,” said Saunders. “It is believed that the driver did a U-turn to pick up the surfer after going over him. He’d been run over by the propeller and was in a bad way.”
The boat driver was said to be in shock and police are appealing for witnesses.
Peter said surfers had to show more respect for boaties at The Alley. “Both boaties and surfers need to be aware of each other and give each other more courtesy,” he said.
David Miller was lucky to escape a similar incident last year whilst surfing at the Alley and hasn’t surfed there since. “The guy driving the boat didn’t see me until the last minute and when he did he panicked and opened the throttle” said David recalling the experience. “I dived of my board and he ran right over it”
“I was sad to hear the news yesterday but I knew it would happen eventually,” said Mr Miller. “Mixing boats and surfers is dangerous, boaties need to be better trained to avoid a situation like this and surfers should probably be more considerate of boaties too. If they don’t change anything it will happen again for sure.”