This was a true tragedy.. this would never slip nowadays.Let me know if you'd like me to cover similar cases such as this Previous in the series - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-adiN2wHD2cc.html&ab_channel=TragedyTales
Please cover these kinds of senseless tragedies, so people who “complain” about too much red tape and oversight by (us) the government, is there for a reason. Greedy, selfish companies look out only for their bottom line!!
Imagine looking at kids struggling to keep their heads above water and telling them they cannot use the life jackets because you want to save a few quid... monstrous.
The life jacket part really made my blood boil. If the instructor wasn’t greedy and had let them deploy their jackets when they asked, those kids might still be alive.
i don't think it was her own greed but fear of repercussions from the higher ups. after all the instructors would make no extra cash from cutting corners. especially noting that she avoided inflating her OWN life vest in those drastic circumstances to please her management. that tells me there was EXTREME pressure to reduce costs no matter what. it seemed drilled in to the point of gaslighting staff out of the normal better safe than sorry measures. she had likely seen other staff deeply shamed and reprimanded by the directors for doing good guest safety and self preservation preventative measures until it was trained out of her. the woman was around 20 or 21, and it's important to remember that an entry level minimum wage job at a predatory company as a very young adult in one of your first jobs can make a person almost as vulnerable to being easily controlled and pushed into danger as those kids were. she made a bad call. but i can't blame her harshly for it knowing there's no way she would have done something so illogical and endangering to her own life unless the work culture was absolutely abhorrent
They more than likely would have all lived if they had inflated their lifejackets as soon as they encountered trouble. If they had inflated life jackets they would have been able to easily signal the first boat they saw, since they didn't have to focus all their energy treading in freezing cold water.
I wouldn’t have asked. The second my kayak started sinking I would have deployed the jacket. In such a case I’ll gladly replace the cost of the jacket if it contributes to my survival.
NEVER follow a woman leader. Women in charge of governments, militaries, companies, etc. are unable to use common sense when there is danger or conflict. They are emotional. The same goes for minorities in White majority countries. They abandon their own people and countries to feed off the success and prosperity of Western civilization.
"Can we inflate our lifejackets?" "No. I mean, it's not like you're drowning or anything, and those cost money." I'm pretty sure the parents of the lost children would have happily paid a thousand times over for lifejackets if it meant their children would live. This entire thing is a disgrace. Thank you for helping to ensure this will not be forgotten.
If you’re the adult in charge, you really should be leaning towards being over safe as a precaution. All I can think is maybe they were in denial about the seriousness of their situation.
Totally reprehensible that they weren’t wearing life jackets that were already inflated, but then for the teacher to not have had the kids inflate them as soon as they hit the water, was a travesty that I hope she carried with her. I also hope she made it her life’s mission to bring life jacket awareness to everyone she could. 😢😢
People like that- who actually are at fault- have an amazing ability to blame everyone and everything else. It's only people with a conscience- who often are not at fault, and who did absolutely all they could- who walk around under the weight of guilt for the rest of their lives.
This was entirely preventable, I cannot believe the “instructor” who was fully responsible for these kids said “no, you can’t use your life saving life jacket”. There’s greed and then there’s THIS level of greed. I’ve spent a fair bit of my life around boats, my step-father always had me wear a life jacket, my grandfather always had me wear a life jacket. Their argument was the exact same and very simple; you can easily replace a life jacket, but you cannot replace someones life.
When I heard the instructor say not to open their vests, I screamed out loud! Also, It shows how people are brainwashed to listen to authority figures, even when what they are telling them is so stupid, it will kill them. I would not be asking permission to save my own life, I would open that vest instantly. It reminded me of that boat that sink off Korea, the teachers told the kids to stay put while they fled and the kids listened against their gut feeling
Im so sorry but Its not the teachers though it was the captain and the crew who turn on the announcement to stay inside and not panic and wear their life vest the teachers were assisting the students and one teacher even gave her life jacket to a student he other teacher ran inside to make sure all the students are safe while the captain and other staff left selfishly there are other crew who stayed and told everyone not to listen to the announcement and leave immediately
Adventure learning is aimed at helping students to develop critical thinking and decision-making skills. Ironically, the students demonstrated better critical thinking and decision-making skills than the instructor who told them not to inflate their life jackets.
I would've had my life jacket on before I got in the water! I can't believe the instructor was more worried about the money. So glad safety regulations have changed.
“Hey let’s use this life jacket in the precise situation that it’s made for” “Nah it’ll cost too much money, can’t be using life jackets when they’re needed that’s absurd”
I'm amazed the handy man wasn't charged for giving false information to the coastguard and subsequently the Royal Navy. I honestly feel he has as much blood on his hands as the director and the instructor who told them not to inflate the life jackets. I can understand young adults getting bullied and intimidated into doing the directors bidding when it comes to cutting costs. However, even in the worst case scenario where they are fired for their actions, both the instructor and the handyman decided their jobs were more important than keeping those kids alive and safe. That should come with prison time.
That's just ridiculous. Dude's a bloody handyman, It's not like he maliciously sent them searching in the wrong place on purpose. You don't know jack about shit except what's said in the video, and that is that the conditions were wild and they got blown way off the course that they were supposed to be on. He probably pointed the search in the direction of where the group was supposed to be headed before everything went to shit. You are absolutely insane to say he has just as much blood on his hands as the teacher who told a group of drowning children not to inflate their life jackets.
Also why didn't he call the coast guard straight away instead of spending hours driving up and down the bay before calling for help, they were obviously more concerned about trying to cover this up so noone would know what had happened but once he realised he couldn't just find them and pretend it didn't happen
I audibly gasped when the instructor told them to not use the life jackets TO SAVE MONEY wow. people can be evil and money can really bring that out in some. heartbreaking story.
It's crazy how if you stab 4 kids you get life without parole but if you kill the kids by throwing them in the water and letting them drown for money then you get a few years.
He had been directly warned that his actions would get people killed. He purposefully did not provide even basic safety supplies. 2 years is an insult to the victims and their families.
in the UK they don't sentence you for life for any murder or manslaughter. it's not the US and the laws are different. Life sentences are very rare in Europe and no one gonna give it in such a case.
@@GreenBaldrick Good point. I had not remembered that the UK got rid of capital punishment and life sentences. Over here in the US, that is likely what he would have gotten.
It was a light sentence for that psychopathic director but honestly I'm surprised anyone was held accountable at all as they usually sadly aren't. Also surprised anyone survived given the circumstances and misinformation. Glad at least new laws were passed and I hope they enforce them.
My school , I was in the year below, I was friends with Dean and my mum knew the parents of one of the girls, it was a very heart breaking time to students, parents and teachers , they will always be remembered in our hearts
What a horrible tragedy but avoidable. Kite got a slap on the wrist as if it was nothing but an extreme auto accident. He should have gotten 10 yrs for each life lost. Those poor children dying at such a young age and a painful death both mentally and physically and they died because of greed. Justice was not done. That court and judge should be ashamed of themselves. It doesn't seem the families were treated in a fair manner.
In 1985 four schoolboys from Stoke Poges drowned at Land's End in Cornwall when they were left unattended on a school trip. Nobody seems to have covered this story, I lived in Cornwall at the time and would like to see someone make this tragedy better known.
@@markprange2430 As far as I can recall, they were just visiting the tourist area of Lands End with the school and had snuck off to climb down the cliffs when they were washed into the sea.
I was at the same centre in late autumn the year before on a PGL trip (we called it a 'Parents Get Lost' trip). The centre was shabby, and all the kids could tell that the instructors didn't have a clue. We were shown how to get out of a kayak in a small pool on the centre grounds, and then taken straight to a very windy seafront and made to paddle out in the kayak in those same red kayaks. The weather was awful and the sea was rough. Several of my school group flat out refused to go out into the water, some tried but got scared within seconds of paddling out and turned back. Myself and one of the other kids had a really hard time getting back to the shore and I was sobbing by the time I managed to get back on dry land. I was 11 at the time. Whilst I was horrified when I found out about this a few years after it happened, I also wasn't totally surprised given my experience.
O my goodness, that's terrible what happened to you and those others. I'm glad you didn't suffer. I used to go on PGL holidays, that was in the '80s. They were such fun times. I did kayaking too, that was somewhere in Wales, but it was a very different and much safer experience.
What a senseless tragedy! All because of PURE greed. I'm so sorry for these 4 families. I can't even imagine the slow horrid death of these young ppl. They all could have been saved. Smh. 3 years is NOT worth 4 lives!!!
Every paddle coaching course I've been on mentions this as a case study. Basically everything the instructors did was dangerous, short sighted and stupid. Coached for year on closed water before I'd even think about open water.
I just finished watching all of your videos. I am going to subscribe and turn on notifications. You're an amazing story teller homie, keep up the great work!
Yeah, there’s a point where you need to listen to your gut and ignore the person in charge. Especially if they’re the one that got you into this mess. Didn’t realize a life jacket could be rendered useless by being waterlogged. Good to know.
If you can't swim well or feel unsafe & someone tells you to NOT use your safety vest, fuck'em and use it. Better to live and have to pay for it later than be dead.
The minute I saw “kayaking disaster” I could guess what happened. As a safety conscious to the point of neurosis kayaker, I’m appalled. Kayaking is an amazing sport that can be very relaxing, but it is not a sport you can just walk up and do like it’s goddamn mini golf. The sea is not to be fucked with. Every single aspect of this situation was wrong. What horrifies me most is the lack of proper PFDs. Everything else aside, they very well could have made it if they were all wearing non-inflatable, paddling PFDs. Never ever EVER get on any watercraft on any body of water without wearing a PFD.
@@IronPsyde are you really gonna say that after watching this video? this person is clearly very well versed in kayaking, they're just trying to emphasize the importance of water safety
There are 8 of us hanging on one kayak. Can we inflate our life jackets now? “No, too expensive”. I doubt that I would have listened to a 21 year old kid instructor at that point.
As they panicked in freezing water she said no, do not inflate your life jackets!!! At a time.like that i can't believe the teacher was more worried about their budget then the kids in their care!!!
This story made me so angry 😡😡 as a parent and as a person who can't swim I cannot even imagine the fear these kids had in their last hours in this world.
3yrs reduced to 2 and 60k fine?????? Wow that guy got off easy with literally a slap on the wrist !!!!! It'd be interesting to know what kinda scams that guy is running today !!!!!
@@rosemaryjones5550 because there’s a difference between manslaughter and murder, mostly intent. Do you think unintentional murder should be charged as severely as intentional murder??
@@bettysparkles4988 I agree, Betty, people emotionally post comments after they listen to the video without envisioning their own cowardly ass in the situation. Obviously the guy didn’t intend to get two kids killed
@@IronPsyde some people are logically minded, some people are over emotional in their thought processes. We know which group we are in :) For example, the original comment says “I’d be interested to know what scams the guy is running today” but he wasn’t running a scam. If they listened, there was no laws, rules, or policies in the uk at the time covering these places. The laws came in because of this accident. The man wasn’t running a scam at all… yet doesn’t stop original commenter going off with all their exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!! (Which is another sign of someone being over emotional) Sad really. They’re probably the type to jump on any old bandwagon. Probs on their fourth booster and “knelt for racism” - Many such cases
As a kayaker (flat and whitewater) and an instructor I don't even know where to begin. Such a preventable tragedy. I do feel for the instructors though--young, completely unqualified and clearly intimidated by the company (the rationale for not inflating lifejackets was obviously fear-driven, not grounded in good decision-making, an appreciation for the situation or knowledge of the equipment). Of all the people associated with this company, it is likely that they suffered the most trauma and guilt. Deepest sympathies to the survivors and all the families and friends affected.
I've never been kayaking but what kind of inexperienced kayakers go into open waters? Don't they need a whole different set of gear (& correct me if I'm wrong) but including kayaks that are designed to be paddled in open waters? It seems like a dangerous body of water for what were obviously laypeople to be navigating.
the moral of the story is always the same - the concept of "self-regulation" which profit driven private sector loves so much and always still lobbys for, always leads to tragedy and atrocity
The sheer incompetence from rescuers pisses me off so bad.....these kids lost their lives because people in charge of their well being all were operating with 2 brain cells
@@markwebster5749 Especially in a kayak! Holy Crow people! We took a ferry from Penzance to the Scilly Isles (Cornwall) on a beautiful June day but that didn't mean it was going to guarantee a smooth sailing when the winds kicked up and turned the waters into a washing machine in the blink of an eye. You know it's rough when passengers are tossing their cookies for most of the ride.🌊⛴🤢(Like that British comedian said: the only cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree).🌲😌Cornwall is so beautiful!!!🌍💓
i have a kayak and cannot IMAGINE going out in such cold weather. also, I'm not sure if its available elsewhere, but NOAA will give marine forecasts in the US. Conditions can change so fast
There are regular maritime forecasts here too. Not surprising as nobody lives further than 70 miles from tidal water and so sea forecasts are often helpful wherever we live.
It is stories like this that make my blood boil when politicians start going on about abolishing regulations. Legislation would have meant that this situation would not have occurred.
This could have easily been avoided. Life is precious and these people should have never let such inexperienced kids get into those kayaks. So sad. My heart breaks for the families.
I'm gonna be a cringy commentor (but partly for jest just to tease). We archaeologists study human artifacts. Paleontologists study fossils. We overlap a lot, but if humans didn't do it- we don't either :D Now having said this... every person I know texts me with fossil news articles and pictures and I just laugh bc I can excavate a fort, but know nothing about trilobites. 😅🤷 In fact its such a common misunderstanding that have 🚫dinosaur stickers on our helmets.
@@MusgraveRitual we actual have terms for natural things that are moved by humans (so if a person picked up a pretty rock and puts it somewhere, it is technically human altered/affected). I have personally found a rock with a fossil in it in a burial.
You never fail to make me cry, Tragedy Tales. The information is very informative but it makes me feel saddened for all the lives lost. Rip to our lost ones and may we see them again someday.
I love your stories - you cover so many things that are new information to many people! Have you considered doing the OES disaster on Mr. Hood? So many people talk about / make videos about the more recent disasters, and the OES disaster is nearly forgotten.
Stories like this make me angry if the director wasnt greedy and if the authorities investigated fully when the two ex employees launched complaints lives could been saved
I live in Lyme and remember when this happened, I was a similar age to them. It was awful and so frustrating as there are so many really experienced and qualified canoe instructers locally, my father included. Awful for their families. It is still talked about today amognst locals canoeists and i suspect will always be.
I agree with everything you said what a disgrace. Greed lies deceit evil. The time in goal way too short. The amount of money no where near enough. Student ask can will do lfe jackets now instructor saids no. How shocking then she lives student dies makes me sick
seems like a very light punishment was dealt out to the man found guilty and how was there insufficient evidence for the manager?! They sent the group out with NO life jackets, no other safety equipment, they didn’t notify the coast guard fgs. No flares, nothing. This was despicable and the judge should have made sure the penalties were much more severe if he wanted to make a statement that this can’t happen again. Those poor people, their poor families.
Imagine all the kayaks capsizing except for one, all the students are hanging onto your boat as you're all lost at sea, and you can look them in the eye and tell them no, don't employ your life jackets because then the company would lose fifty dollars. What a horrible instructor.
What a horrible tragedy. Simple greed that took the life of four kids and the owner got away? Insufficient evidence? Only four dead children, as if that wasn’t evidence enough. And to lie to the coastguard? That in itself is as good as murder in my opinion. Excellent narrative as always! 🙏🏻🇸🇪
That reminds me a little of an incident in Denmark... It'll be 12 years ago in a couple of weeks. 2 teachers and 13 students capsized in a boat that had not been safety approved by the proper authorities. They were not wearing proper safety wests in the correct color for signaling the rescuers to easily find them, nor were they wearing a wet suit or similar to protect them from the cold. Fortunately all 13 students survived, some swimming to shore and raising the alarm, but unfortunately one of the teachers lost his life saving one of the students. But it was too windy that day. Similarly my school had sent us off on a bloody triathlon. And my teacher had the audacity to tell me from inside their nice warm car 'it'll probably be faster if I sit on the bike'. I'd chosen to drag it along next to me for my own safety - With strong sidewinds (the strongest being categorized hurricane winds) that wanted nothing more than throwing me into the ditch? No thank you. It was hard enough trying to keep the wind from blowing my bike away when I wasn't sitting on it. And instead of helping me they just drive off and leave me there struggling, I was more than likely bringing up the rear at that point. It was not fun.
Wow! Was this a requirement? To partake in a triathlon? In any event, my parents would be very upset if my school had me participate in any such activity w/o anyone but teachers as our guides. It's not like you're in the school gym. I'm sure most kids engage in these activities because they're fun & challenging. They shouldn't be given a false sense of security in the adults they're suppose to trust know what they're doing. I feel bad you were left behind. It's upsetting. I'm sorry they did that.💓🌺 The meanies!
@@isabellind1292 Pretty much, we did it twice during the year too, although it wasn't the full distance, the other time being a lot more fun without the wind making it more difficult. Though it wasn't like they could physically force us to do it, but there would likely have been consequences of some kind if we didn't participate. At least the swimming part was indoors, if not, I would have damned the potential consequences. I am bad enough at swimming as it is, I don't need to be doing it outdoors in questionable depths and weather conditions. But at that point I think I'd already reached the conclusion in life that no one would be looking out for me, so I had to do what I felt was safest and then ignore what everyone else thought. It might have taken longer, but I got back safe.
Sounds like the cheap version of the ones on planes. But those exist so you can escape a submerged fuselage and THEN inflate instead of being stuck floating against the ceiling. Maybe it's better to escape the overturned kayak first so they're more suitable, but I always used the foam kind kayaking, even 20 years ago.
While I do believe that allowing kids and teens to explore and experience the wild, as well as coming face to face with maybe not the easiest of situations, this school sounds insane! When you wanna build someone up through hardship, I thought you were meant to give them tasks perfectly suited for them so they will overcome it, but it wont be completely easy? Like, I thought they wanted the students to develop stubborness and determination in the face of struggle, not completely break them down!? To me it was always about showing people that they CAN do these seemingly impossible things with some guidence, a good team to lean on, knowlige, and a will to fight on despite blisters or sweat or a little bit of rain. These people are just...way to much.
I look down on any school that claims to build character for this exact reason. Especially this one, with its insane motto, "It was better to die in the woods than in front of the television." Why mention death??
Significant? He literally got a slap on the wrist lol. In one year he made over $200,000 so he hardly took a financial hit and 2 years is next to nothing. Literally killed a bunch of kids and got rich off it.
It’s a sport not enough people take seriously. You can rent one a lot of places with zero training, so a lot of people seem to think it’s a chill, safe sport. It can be, if conditions are chill, but conditions are never chill in the sea. Sea kayaking, especially open water sea kayaking, should never, ever be done without experience, guidance, and adequate safety gear and training. It would be like putting a kid who just learned how to ride a bike on the highway with cars. Not so different from mountaineering and diving.
The Life Jacket Part.....idk how to say or what to say. AT ALL TIMES WHEN IN A SITUATION LIKE THIS INFLATE THE LIFE JACKET NO MATTER WHAT OR THEY WILL DROWN. That's Exactly what happened to the Poor 4 Students who sadly Lost their Lives Because of an Untrained Instructor not knowing what to do in a situation like this really hurts and will be a pain to them for the rest of their whole lives. I feel sorry for them who suffered from it.
I should also add that the kayaks used were totally unsuitable for the conditions. They were river boats, shorter than sea kayaks with a very tight cockpit. I imagine that they were less stable too. Sea kayaks are long (mine is 14 ft and some touring boats are 17 ft) and built for stability in choppy, windy conditions. They’re less likely to tip and swamp, even without a spray skirt. In a whitewater kayak, you want it to be narrower and shorter to navigate rivers. If a boat is less stable and conditions are poor, it would be easy to tip or swamp. My boat is somewhat tippy for a sea kayak but is still stable-nonetheless, I would not let a brand new person use it. There’s a little bit of a panic factor when you sit in a tippy boat for the first time that can make you overcompensate and end up tossing yourself. The smaller cockpit would also make it harder to bail out. Just totally inappropriate for the conditions and the new kayakers.
I could not believe the training. It’s essential. Here in the SF Bay Area we have 2 courses for kayaking in Berkeley - first is one day, for simple calm waters just in SFBay, and another two day course for sea kayaking. To think, a one hour training? It takes more than an hour to get the hang of righting your kayak when you flip over. And there is is so much more you need to learn. Plus, once you’ve done the two day course, which these kids needed, some easy, sheltered practice is needed before paddling out into the ocean. They should all have had the protections against water entering their kayaks, usually taught on second day of training. The point is, DON’t do ocean kayaking without training!
Since I was a kid (nearly 60 now) people in my own country and those I’ve visited including the UK, people always joke about how quickly the weather changes. So I can’t understand why I’m so many tragedies it seems no one considers a change in weather.
Did the parents win ANY sort of civil suit? Says he was fined £60k, a meager quarter of his profits... But even if that went to the parents and is adjusted for inflation, it's nothing split 4 ways. I hope they at least got the cash from the sale of the business.
I’ve gone kayaking in the middle of a bay during beautiful weather but strong currents it made me so nervous I cannot imagine how terrifying this would have been
I agree he should have got a longer sentence and the handyman 🤬 what a terrible psychotic person he was/is..... does anyone know what happened to him? Enjoy rest of your day and great video too. Those poor young people,it should never have happened.
It happened in 1993, long before the days of internet, when stuff like that was just a Google search away. Back then doing research on a company wasn't that easy.
What a nightmare! Was the instructor who didn't allow the kids to inflate their lifevests not sued? She surely should have been held partially responsible. Every adult in this story failed those kids. Horrendous. I hope they all felt a heavy weight in their hearts for the rest of their lives. Unbelievable behaviour!
3 years for a murderer of 4? That's some kind of a joke. And why so few people in court? I will start with the college director and then many others-including coast guard. But nobody asked me. Poor souls. Do die so young and for nothing. RIP
We can all learn from these kinds of videos, especially people that like to experience new hobbies. Kayaking, scuba diving, canyoning, caving. Sad to hear about the victims. :( From each tragedy we can at least learn something that might one day save our lives.
Sentences like that are an absolute insult. They're almost encouraging ppl to act negligently with little to no regard for human life. They serve as a very poor example for justice
I'm drowning miss instructors, can I inflate my life jacket. NO. MY COMPANY DOESNT WANT TO WASTE THEM. When it comes to Mother Nature and adventures, I don't believe in lawsuits when things go wrong BUT THIS IS AN EXCEPTION. Sue sue sue. Very sad..
Oh, I’m SURE those big navy helicopters cost WAY less than a life jacket or two!! Wow. And I’m seeing this nonchalant attitude in a lot of British history when it came to safety during around this time. Then there was the Hillsborough Disaster among others.
