Coastguard who saved girl twice quits over health and safety row ("We don't want dead heroes")

Times Online (U.K.) ^ | January 12, 2008 | Steve Bird

[Stoat]

Coastguard who saved girl twice quits over health and safety row

 

 

Steve Bird

A coastguard who risked his life to save a teenage girl stranded on a cliff ledge has resigned after he was criticised for breaching health and safety rules during the rescue.

Paul Waugh, 44, was so concerned for the 13-year-old girl that he clambered down to her in gale-force winds without waiting to fit safety harnesses.

The father of three, who was hailed as a hero and received an award for stopping the girl from falling 300ft as she waited for an RAF rescue helicopter, announced yesterday that he was leaving the service after 13 years.

Officials at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said that Mr Waugh, from Cleveland, had breached health and safety regulations because he had not been roped up for the descent. A spokesman said that the rules were in place because the agency did not want any “dead heroes”.

Mr Waugh said: “I am very sad that I have had to leave because I loved my job, but it is one of those things. You save a life and this is how they treat you. I am sorry, but I would not leave any 13-year-old girl hanging off a cliff.

“Saving her life was the important thing. The cliff edge was crumbling away and I didn’t think I had time to wait. It was pitch black and all you could see was a little girl’s frightened face. She was even planning her own funeral. If I had left her and ran back to the vehicle, got the safety equipment and then ran back, she could have fallen. She had been stuck there for 45 minutes and the cliff ledge had actually gave way so she was hanging by her arms off tufts of grass.

“If she had fallen and I had stood watching her, my life would not have been worth living.”

The former miner gave up as a volunteer for the agency, blaming “immense pressure” from management at Bridlington Coastguard.

The girl, Faye Harrison, had been walking with three friends along the cliff top at Brotton last January when they followed the wrong path down the cliff. As it got dark they became disorientated and stranded. A dog walker raised the alarm after hearing their screams for help.

Mr Waugh was paged by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, and with two others went to the scene. Because of a locked farm gate they could not get the rescue vehicle, which contained harnesses and ropes, to the cliff. Mr Waugh clambered down to Faye and held her to prevent her from falling. About 30 minutes later they were winched off by the helicopter.

Mr Waugh said: “I broke a rule and did not use the kit but I saved a life. I don’t call myself a hero. I would have helped even if I had not been in the coastguard. If I had done nothing I would have got slated, but I saved her life and I still get slated.”

Faye, now 14, from Saltburn-by-the-sea, east Cleveland, said that Mr Waugh, who also rescued her on another occasion when she was trapped by the tide, was a “true hero”.

“I am disgusted by the way Paul has been treated,” she said. “If he hadn’t been brave enough to climb down to me I don’t think I would be here today. I was terrified and started thinking about my funeral. Paul is a hero.”

The girl’s mother, Michelle Bint, 38, said: “I know Paul wasn’t sacked, but the coastguards left him no other choice but to quit. It’s hard to believe that health and safety guidelines come before a human life.” She said that Mr Waugh was a popular figure in the area and that she knew that he would “never stand by and let Faye suffer”.

A spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: “We wish Paul well in his future endeavours and the MCA is very grateful for his past activities and work in the Coastguard Rescue Service. However, the MCA is very mindful of health and safety regulations, which are in place for very good reasons.

“Above all our responsibility is to maintain the health and welfare of those who we sometimes ask to go out in difficult and challenging conditions to affect rescues. The MCA is not looking for dead heroes. As such, we ask our volunteers to risk-assess the situations they and the injured or distressed person find themselves in, and to ensure that whatever action they take does not put anyone in further danger.”

Mr Waugh was named hero of the year by a national Christmas savings club, won a Vodafone lifesaver award and was nominated for a national newspaper’s bravery award. The MCA relies on 3,200 volunteers working in 400 teams, and 64 full-time coastguard staff manage operations.

[scottteng]

He was a volunteer did this stuff for no pay like old fashioned fire companies. How silly to pressure him to leave.

[PeteB570]

He resigned, he was not sacked.

If he loved the job he would have taken the reprimand, threw it in the trash and continued working.

Rescue services to have procedures to follow and he didn’t but saved a girls life. They whacked him and so he resigned.

Saved her twice? Says something about her.

[Mark was here]

Reminds me of the Border Patrol with the Compean Ramos travesty.

The hero in this case didn't hide the fact that he broke a rule, he freely admitted it.

He did what he had to do as a man first, and an employee second. He was willing to let the chips fall where they may.

[Mila]

“Coincidentally, it was the second time Mr Waugh had helped the teenager.

She was rescued by him last year when she became trapped by the tide.”

I know she’s a kid, but Faye needs to keep reminding herself that she is not immortal and take things a little more cautiously. Oh, and maybe she should stay away from the cliffs and the seashore;)

[Stoat]

I would imagine that her parents will have her on a very, very short ‘leash’ for quite some time :-)

[Stoat]

How silly to pressure him to leave.

Under Socialism, the Rules of the State are everything; humanity is nothing.

 

[PeteB570]

Hey Stoat;

I’m not hitting on you but yours was just the last posted.

Folks - lets remember a few thinks.

This is an MSM news story, do we have all the facts? He’s a volunteer and says he resigned after “immense pressure” from management.

Small groups of people who work in jobs that require risks do it for the job and their fellow team/unit mates - not management. Management is not sitting in the office at night, his mates are.

Some people I know who got similar reprimands framed it and hung it on their office wall.

I’m just wondering if we got the “rest of the story” and if not - what is it?

[Stoat]

Good thing he didn't save her from being raped and killed,
he'd be in prison right now... Backwards idiots.

Hopefully one day it will come to pass that the cancer of Socialism, which destroys the life energy and humanity of everyone who falls under it's bloodsucking shadow will one day be beaten into the ground where it belongs.

Admiral Lord Nelson, Winston Churchill and countless other magnificent heroes of Great Britain's glorious past are all spinning in their graves.

[scottteng]

I guess that under British Socialism there are endless volunteers for dangerous tasks for no pay. Wonder what this guy actually does for a living? Does not seem to be the sort that would live on the state’s largess.

[AIM-54]

I wish this sort of insanity were the exception to the rule, but it is not.

Common sense is dead.

The England we once knew is no more. R.I.P.

[Stoat]

I’m just wondering if we got the “rest of the story” and if not - what is it?

Although I agree that the published accounts lack a great deal of specificity, what was conveyed to me from the way the accounts are written was that he was subjected to considerably more than merely being handed a reprimand and that was the end of it.

He was a 13 year veteran who loved the job.  He has a wife and three children.  He was a former miner.  He doesn't seem like the type who would throw a hysterical fit and quit merely because he was handed a piece of paper.

It seems to me that he was subjected to an intentional, ongoing pattern of pressure and was essentially forced out, in order to make an example to the rest of the Coast Guard.  But, that's just my reading of it and everyone is entitled to their own view.

[bikerman]

were you?

[Stoat]

I guess that under British Socialism there are endless volunteers for dangerous tasks for no pay.

Here in the USA also.  I used to be in the fire service, and when I was there the national ratio was around 70% volunteer to 30% paid.  Most small communities can't afford to pay firefighters....it's terribly expensive.

 

[PeteB570]

I’m thinking more of the inter team dynamics.

The story was his side and an official announcement from “management”. A typical driveby media story that tears at the heart of readers.

Where were the interviews of “his mates”, the guys at the station with him on those long dark nights? No off the record “He’s a really great guy, management is railroading him. We love working with him” section in the story.

Granted the UK has weird newspaper rules but.......

[bikerman]

I agree the extra training and maybe a word by the commander but not the hounding that went on, glad all came out ok,I don't understand why they ran to the edge from the car without the gear in the first place though somebody of the three should have grabbed some rope on the way.

[dsc]

Huevos muy mas grande, hombre.

Well done.

Rudyard Kipling

Tommy
I went into a public-’ouse to get a pint o’beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:

O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s ``Thank you, Mister Atkins,’’ when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s ``Thank you, Mr. Atkins,’’ when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-’alls,
But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!

For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”;
But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide,
The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide.

Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap;
An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.

Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy how’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll.

We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints:
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;

While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind,”
But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind,
There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind.

You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.

For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country,” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
But Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool - you bet that Tommy sees!

[Stoat]

Perhaps such accounts will be forthcoming, and if it turns out that my opinion is wrong then I will have no problem in adjusting it accordingly. I have no great fondness or respect for the mainstream media, but a similar version has been written by multiple reporters in multiple papers...although this of course doesn’t guarantee accuracy, I would suggest that it also doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the story has been spun.

If there’s an “alternate ending” I’m guessing that the UK Sun or the Daily Mail will dig it up. They have come up with some amazing “out of the box” stuff in times past.

[SkyPilot]

The agency does not approve of the way you handled this incident.

[Stoat]

I don't understand why they ran to the edge from the car without the gear in the first place though somebody of the three should have grabbed some rope on the way.

When I last checked, this story was being carried by 14 major UK news outlets including the BBC.   I'm guessing that a story that is this compelling will have some followups written about it, hopefully some interviews with his co-workers or a more in-depth interview with Mr. Waugh.  I would hesitate to second -guess people at the scene, and it sounds like he knew that he had just moments to act, and putting on a harness and roping up takes a little while.  She was hanging on by bits of grass and the ledge had given way....Mr. Waugh probably made a judgment call that he had only seconds to act.

[Stoat]

LMAO!!! :-)