{"id":7418,"date":"2020-05-30T13:46:30","date_gmt":"2020-05-30T11:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/?p=7418"},"modified":"2026-05-22T13:45:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:45:50","slug":"fatal-accident-with-a-fast-rib","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/fatal-accident-with-a-fast-rib\/","title":{"rendered":"Fatal Accident with a Family Rigid Inflatable Boat &#8211; a Survivor Testifies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<iframe width=\"853\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DiZOH_ANTks\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Could This Accident Have Been Prevented?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On 5 May 2013, a devastating RIB accident on the Camel Estuary near Padstow, Cornwall, changed the lives of an entire family forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Victoria Milligan was enjoying a family outing aboard an 8-metre RIB powered by a 300 hp outboard when tragedy struck. Travelling at high speed with six people on board, two adults and four children, the boat suddenly ejected its occupants into the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What followed was catastrophic. The unmanned RIB continued at speed, circling back and striking the people in the water multiple times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Victoria\u2019s husband, Nick, and their eight-year-old daughter, Emily, lost their lives. Victoria herself suffered life-changing injuries and ultimately lost her left leg below the knee. Two other family members were seriously injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The subsequent investigation by the Royal Yachting Association and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/organisations\/marine-accident-investigation-branch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Marine Accident Investigation Branch<\/a> found that the engine emergency stop lanyard, commonly known as the <a href=\"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/think-wear-your-kill-cord-rya\/\">kill cord<\/a>, had not been attached to the driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a result, the engine continued running after the occupants were thrown overboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reflecting on the aftermath, Victoria said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI now tick boxes I could never have imagined: widow, trauma victim, amputee and bereaved mother.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The accident remains one of the most powerful reminders of why wearing a kill cord is essential whenever operating a high-performance powerboat or RIB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A simple action that takes only seconds can prevent a vessel from becoming an uncontrolled and potentially deadly hazard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The engine cut-out \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/think-wear-your-kill-cord-rya\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"6357\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">kill cord\u2019<\/a> mechanism was not activated as it had not been attached to the driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The above-mentioned MAIB report once again confirms that in the event of a fatal accident, an extensive investigation follows with all possible parties involved (seller of the boat, sailing school, constructor, etc.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Out of respect the dramatic footage is not shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the years I&#8217;ve published a lot of posts regarding safety. <a href=\"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/category\/safety\/\">You can find them all here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Out of respect for all rescue teams, I devoted <a href=\"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/category\/rescue\/\">several articles<\/a> to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Could This Accident Have Been Prevented? On 5 May 2013, a devastating RIB accident on the Camel Estuary near Padstow, Cornwall, changed the lives of an entire family forever. Victoria Milligan was enjoying a family outing aboard an 8-metre RIB powered by a 300 hp outboard when tragedy struck. Travelling at high speed with six people on board, two adults&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[102,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-safety","category-video"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ribsonly.com\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}