A mother who plunged headfirst down a gap between sea defence boulders drowned in front of her daughter as the tide rose over her head and members of the public tried in vain to drag her out, an inquest heard on Tuesday.
Suffolk Coroner’s Court was told how Saffron Cole-Nottage, 32, was stuck upside down with her legs sticking out of the rocks after stumbling on a path while walking her dog, Blue.
Her daughter, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, desperately screamed for help after her fall at around 7.45pm on February 2 last year on the path between the rocks and the base of the promenade sea wall in Lowestoft, Suffolk.
Two men and a girl who were walking nearby rushed to help and tried to haul her free from the rocks for ‘around 15 minutes’ as she begged them to get her out.
The hearing in Ipswich was told that a girl who made a 999 call told the ambulance service to get there quickly because she feared Saffron would die as the water rose around her.
A pre-inquest hearing held last June heard how there was a delay in sending firefighters to the scene after an initial 999 call was made to the East of England Ambulance Service at 7.52pm.
There appeared to have been contact between the ambulance service and Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service at 8.04pm or 8.05pm, and ‘a subsequent call’ from the Coastguard to the fire service.
But firefighters were not ‘dispatched to the location’ until five minutes later at around 8.10pm, the hearing was told.
Saffron Cole-Nottage, 32, became stuck upside down with her legs sticking out of sea defence rocks in Lowestoft, Suffolk, after stumbling on a path while walking her dog, Blue.
Mother-of-six Saffron who was more than three times the drink-drive alcohol limit at the time of her death was quickly freed when firefighters arrived but was already dead.
Alex Singleton-Dent said he was walking along the promenade with two female friends when he heard a girl shouting for help.
In a statement read to the inquest, he said: ‘I looked over the railings and saw a girl screaming for help for her mum. I immediately ran down the slope towards her and told my friends to call emergency services.’
Mr Singleton-Dent said he used the torch on his phone to help him look out to sea in the darkness as he thought the person would be in the water – before he saw ‘two legs sticking out of the rocks’.
The woman’s feet were without her trainers as they had apparently been yanked off by her daughter who had been trying to pull her out.
He said the woman who was stuck did not speak at first but then asked him to help pull her out, before another passer-by, Ian Jones, joined in the rescue attempt along with a girl who was with two friends.
‘We worked to try and get her out but we just couldn’t. It felt like we were trying for ages and the emergency services didn’t arrive for hours,’ Mr Singleston-Dent said.
‘I knew the female had become unresponsive while the tide was coming in. I assumed she died in the rocks. The emergency services took over and I went up to the promenade and handed her trainers to the police.’
Saffron became wedged in the rocks as the tide started to come in, the inquest heard
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Mother trapped in sea defence boulders drowned amid ‘possible delay’ to rescue callout, inquest told
Mr Jones described in a statement how he had gone for a walk at 7.45pm when he heard a girl screaming but could not see where she was.
‘A guy walking behind, who I now know as Alex, looked over the railings and started running,’ he said.
‘I asked what was the matter and he replied that someone was stuck. I followed him down and saw two legs sticking out of the water by the rocks and a young girl screaming.
‘Alex and I immediately began pulling the legs of the person trapped. It felt like we were pulling the lady’s legs for around ten minutes but we could not pull her free.
‘She was wedged between the rocks and panicking and screaming. It was very wet and we did what we could.’
The girl who was at the scene with two friends, and who cannot be named for legal reasons, explained how she heard ‘a lot of screaming’ close to an old lifeguard’s hut and realised that a ‘a young woman was stuck head first in the sea defence rocks with her legs up in the air’.
She said in a statement: ‘The lady was of a larger build and was well and truly wedged but we were unable to get her out.
‘We spent around 15 minutes trying to get her out. My female friend used her phone to call emergency services.
The mother-of-six, who was with one of her daughters at the time, was described as a ‘loving mother who was completely devoted to her children’
‘I recall she was shouting and screaming and asking us to help get her out. I was not conscious (at first) that the water was getting higher and she was in danger. I know it felt like an eternity.
‘I can’t help but think that if the ambulance had got there sooner, they may have been able to do something to get her out. The water had clearly come up, submerging her head under the water.
‘Everyone was trying their hardest to get her out. I believed I had hold of her foot when she passed away.
‘I know my friend, during the call to the ambulance control, was telling them to get there quicker. They said she was drowning and would soon be dead. I am angry that there was not a quicker response.’
Saffron’s partner, Mike Wheeler, said she had regularly walked on the concrete apron between the sea defence boulders and the promenade in the three years since she had moved to Lowestoft.
She had gone out for a Sunday roast with her father and stepmother on February 2, he told the inquest, before taking some of her children to play mini golf and returning home.
‘Although she had been drinking, she was not slurring her words and was acting normally,’ he said in his statement.
‘I could tell she had had something to drink but she was not unsteady on her feet.’
The scene of the tragedy in Lowestoft, where passers-by desperately attempted to pull Saffron free as they waited for emergency services to arrive
Saffron had spent around 30 minutes dancing with her children in the kitchen before taking Blue out for a walk with her daughter at 7.30pm, he said.
Mr Wheeler described how he became worried when she didn’t return and then heard a helicopter overhead.
Saffron’s stepmother Patricia Cole said in her statement that Saffron had drunk three pints of Foster’s lager during lunch at the Hatfield Hotel before heading off to the arcades.
She later got a call from one of Saffron’s children at 9.19pm telling her to come round as there had been an accident.
Ms Cole said: ‘It was obviously extremely emotional and distressing.
‘I asked Mike what had happened. He said that she was obviously drunk as she was slurring her words. She was going to take the dog for a walk but he objected because she was drunk.’
A post-mortem examination confirmed the cause of death as drowning.
Saffron had 271mgs of alcohol in 100mls of blood which pathologist Raj Logasundarum described as higher than a level ‘normally associated with drunkenness’. The drink drive limit is 80mgs.
Floral tributes at the scene where the mother-of-six lost her life
Saba Naqshbandi KC, who is representing Saffron’s family at the inquest, read a statement in which they paid tribute to her as a ‘loving mother who was completely devoted to her children and gave just as much love as she received’.
It added that she had met Mr Wheeler in 2013 and had a life ‘full of love and laughter’ with their six children.
Her children were her ‘greatest joy’ and her death had ‘left an indescribable void in the lives of her family’.
The statement continued: ‘Saff was truly one of a kind. She was full of life and had the ability to light up any room. Her heart was always open and she would do anything for anyone…
‘To know Saff was never to forget her. She was larger than life and the life and soul of any party. She left behind not just cherished memories but wonderful children.’
Suffolk area coroner Darren Stewart OBE said the inquest would examine the events ‘which led up to Saffron becoming submerged in rocks on the seafront’.
He added he would be considering ‘the response of emergency services and whether there was any delay in attempting a rescue of Saffron’ and the ‘decision-making and prioritisation of the emergency service response’.
‘The incident will also enquire about signage and barriers to the area where Saffron became trapped,’ Mr Stewart said.
He described Saffron as ‘a much-loved partner, daughter, sister, niece, aunty, cousin and precious mother to six children’
‘It is clear to me that she is a very greatly missed member of her family and missed by her wider body of friends,’ Mr Stewart added.
The inquest is expected to last nine days.
