29-05-2025
Holy Island team 'worked until midnight' to recover causeway car
A worker who helped to recover a submerged car near the Holy Island causeway said he had never seen one swept that far out Lifeboat Station said it was called to reports of a car stranded at about 14:45 BST on Monday and found it submerged 50m (164ft) away from the Mason, who helped recover the car on Tuesday evening, said the team worked until midnight to retrieve it, adding: "It just shows you how much the tide can pick a car up and shift it."The owners were located by Northumbria Police safe on the island shortly after the report was received, the lifeboat station said.
"That was the first of that kind of distance," Mr Mason said.
'A lot of weight'
Although the lifeboat station said the car was 50m (164ft) from the causeway, Mr Mason said it was actually about half a mile said that by the time they had the car on the back of the truck, the tide had turned and started coming back in again."It took a long time to tow it that kind of distance," he Mason said the team arrived at the causeway before the tide went out in the early evening."It was midnight when we got it loaded on the back of the truck," he said. "Of course with all of the water in it and all the sand it was a lot of weight."The safe crossing times for the causeway are published on the council's website, but Mr Mason said people often misread them."It's always going to happen," he said."You get people not wanting to get trapped on the island trying to get off and the ones who don't realise just how high the tide comes."
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