Staying positive - the driver who crashed into river in Stratford says 'I was lucky'
WHEN your car ends up in the middle of the River Avon and a friend is swimming out to help you to the bank, you need to stay positive.
That was Gina Dallison’s view after she reversed her Mitsubishi Colt from Stratford-upon-Avon Boat Club’s car park next to the Rec and into the water on Tuesday afternoon.
One witness told the Herald the car seemed to “lift off” before landing in the river, about halfway towards the opposite bank, not far from the Tramway Bridge.
Gina, 51, was unfazed by the drama, which happened after her foot became jammed on the accelerator as she headed home to Rugby after training with the boat club’s adaptive squad.
The mother-of-two, who has multiple sclerosis, explained that her legs were tired after the training and rather than rest, she opted to head for home.
“I had to do a little manoeuvre to get out of the car park and my right leg just got too heavy on the accelerator,” she said. “I’ve got an automatic car and I could feel myself going backwards and the next thing you know I’m speeding up and into the drink.
“I was going quite a pace by that point.
“Then I stopped and I was thinking ‘should I open the car door? I don’t really know the protocol for this’.
“The water started coming in and I recognised that I needed to get out, so I opened the windows and I was shouting to the guys. They were almost stripping off to get in and I shouted back that I was alright.
“They were shouting ‘you need to get out’, but I couldn’t open the car door. So I put my phone and my keys in my pocket and then climbed out the window.
“It was lucky because the windows then started going up. I could have been stuck in there.
“Apparently then you have to wait for the car to go down and then you can equalise, but I didn’t know that. Then I was out in the water; I do like a bit of wild swimming but it wasn’t what I had planned for this morning.”
On his way to help was fellow rowing club member Paul Beardmore, 63.
He told the Herald: “I had been rowing with Gina and we were finishing off the day. Gina got in her car and it was revving up. I had my back to her and heard the roar of the engine. The car accelerated and went straight into the river, backwards at speed.
“I said ‘I’m going in’ as I was the most appropriately dressed and when I got to the car I couldn’t get the doors open – [the electrics] had shorted but Gina managed to get out just in time.
“The river was very cold.”
The pair made it safely back to dry land where the emergency services had started to gather. Gina was checked over by paramedics and, in dry clothes, was back outside to watch her £800 car dragged from the river.
She added: “I don’t think I felt scared for my life. Like I said, I do wild swimming so I don’t think the cold water was much of a shock, it was more like how did this even happen?
“Once I was out and people recognised I was ok, then the jokes came out.”
Gina, a life coach who was diagnosed with MS in 2009, joined Stratford-upon-Avon Boat Club as it was a sport she felt she could do after the “doors started shutting” because of her condition and she could no longer go running and cycling.
The jump into the Avon has not put her off coming to Stratford – although Gina said replacing the car would be tricky as the processes of getting a mobility vehicle is long and drawn-out.
Gina’s car was recovered quickly from the river where it had sunk so only a buoy floating on the water marked its location.
A recovery truck was called in and with the help of the police and the Environment Agency, a winch was secured to the Mitsubishi and it was dragged from its watery parking spot while a crowd gathered on the bridge to watch.
Gina, who at the time of speaking had not told her children about her accident, added: “In reality I think this was a lucky incident. I rolled into the river, I had a bit of a laugh about it and no one got hurt.
“I speak a lot about your body talking to you and mine’s definitely telling me to slow down.”
Warwickshire Police said: “A report received at 12.15 [on Tuesday] that a car had gone into the water at near the RSC. The occupant of the car – a woman – escaped from the car and was rescued. She was uninjured.”
It just took off
Keith Hawkes, a maintenance engineer at the RSC watched the whole drama unfold.
“I was having a coffee out the back of the theatre with a colleague. I saw a small blue car go into the river and crikey it flew. It just took off - it was quite dramatic. I called security and told them to alert the emergency services. The car stayed afloat for a while nose down but in less than five minutes it had sunk. We see some interesting things from the theatre but I’ve never ever seen anything like this before.”
