Snowy weather continues to claim lives in region

Jan 8 2010 by Lisa Hutchinson, Alastair Craig and Dan Warburton, The Journal

A FISHERMAN spoke for the first time last night of the chilling moment he watched a fellow angler plunge to his death after a cliff collapsed.

The killed man, named locally as Geoff Nixon of Ashington died after falling 50ft to the sea’s edge leaving him buried under tons of rock near Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Northumberland.

And the witness who dialled 999 seconds after the tragedy told The Journal: “I was casting about 35 yards away from where he was fishing and heard a huge explosion. It was like a bomb going off.

“I just saw a huge part of cliff vanish into the dark. One second he was standing there, the next he was gone.”

The man, who did not want to be named, added: “It’s a tragedy. A complete freak of nature. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

With the recovery operation hampered by bad weather, the victim’s body was finally taken ashore yesterday – over 24 hours after the land-slip, which happened 800m north of Sandy Bay at 5.40pm on Wednesday.

A rescue team of more than 50 coastguard members, fire crews and paramedics battled to save the fisherman for three hours in the rising tide, blizzards and sub-zero temperatures.

His body has been taken to Wansbeck District Hospital and police were still awaiting formal identification last night.

And arctic conditions claimed more lives yesterday as the snow and ice continued to batter the region and cause chaos on the region’s roads.

A 16-year-old boy was killed and his mother seriously injured after they were hit by an HGV lorry on the A1.

Last night the teenager’s 46-year-old mother was in hospital suffering from multiple fractures.

It was not known if she was aware that her son was dead.

It is understood the pair were travelling home to Tyneside when their car hit the central reservation four miles north of Scotch Corner on the Durham and North Yorkshire border after 10pm on Wednesday.

But as they waited for help on the side of the road an oncoming lorry tried to avoid their blue Peugeot 307 and hit the pair.