A £120,000 Range Rover and a Transit van were completely submerged by the tide on Scarborough beach in North Yorkshire after a failed rescue attempt. The incident occurred on Friday, June 19, when the driver of the high-performance Range Rover SVR tried to tow his friend's stranded van out of the sea, only to get stuck himself.
Failed Rescue Attempt
Eyewitness Sammy Hellewell, 39, filmed the bungled rescue. She recounted that the van had initially become stuck, and the men tried digging it out with a plastic spade. The Range Rover then attempted to pull the van free, but after multiple failed attempts shortly after 6pm, the SUV—which even has a sand driving mode—also became trapped.
Local people offered advice, including using jet skis to extract the vehicles, but the men were reportedly rude and insisted they knew what they were doing. “Some local people did go down and give them some advice to try and use the jet skis to get it out of the sand, but they were quite rude to him and gave him the impression that they knew what they were doing and told them to leave them alone,” Hellewell said.
Vehicles Submerged
As the tide rose, both vehicles slowly dipped below the waves until only an aerial was visible above the water. “By the end they were fully submerged. We left the scene after a couple of hours. You could just see the aerial of the van sticking out of the water,” Hellewell added. The men managed to rescue a jet ski but lost both vehicles.
Rescue workers told Hellewell they were waiting for low tide to tow the vehicles out. “They said the chaps' insurance would be void and they said they would be billing the parties involved,” she said. Both vehicles were eventually hauled off the beach by diggers but were unlikely to be in a fit state to be driven.
Public Reaction
Hellewell described the incident as “absolutely stupid” and “really stupid.” She filmed it for her father-in-law, thinking he would find it hilarious. “The driver had clearly reversed it in for the jet ski and got stuck. The Range Rover was fully mobile and then the back wheels started to sink while they weren't paying attention,” she said.
