Dear Editor,

At this time of year the river side at Ross becomes an understandably attractive place. There were many people in several different groups using the river on Tuesday evening (20th June) including members of the rowing club.

However there was an incident last night that involved a group of young girls playing in an area that most of us know is a very dangerous stretch of water.

Most people using the river play in the shallow water off the pebble beach but in this case the girls started moving down river past the rowing club. Some of our members shouted warnings that the river gets a lot deeper in this area and that the girls should return to the ‘safer’ area. During the current weather conditions the ‘safer’ area would certainly be less than 1m deep but the pool below the rowing club could easily be 5m deep and reaches that depth very suddenly.

Unfortunately the girls didn’t heed the warnings and soon got into difficulty. We had to launch our safety boat and effect a rescue. Two of the girls were very distressed, one appeared to suffer some sort of a fit and the paramedics were called.

As is often the case, a chain of response was set in motion and pretty soon we had two paramedic teams in 4x4s, a police car, an ambulance and a fire engine in attendance!

I have no idea of the cost in time and money to those involved in this operation, probably considerable, but things could so easily have turned out a lot worse.

It’s a great thing to see the river side used and as long as everyone is sensible there’s no reason why we shouldn’t all enjoy this wonderful asset but please remember the river can be a very dangerous and unforgiving place.

Graham Watling

Chairman, Ross-on-Wye Rowing Club