Latest news with #SarahWhitelaw
BBC News
19-07-2025
- Automotive
- BBC News
Keep cars off Cullercoats RNLI accessibility ramp plea
Beach visitors have been told to stop parking on an RNLI accessibility ramp because they are hindering rescue efforts. The organisation said that drivers were ignoring double yellow lines near the Cullercoats ramp in North Tyneside, delaying volunteer rescuers reaching volunteer Alex Bateman said he had had to abandon a recent rescue mission because he could not get parked nearby."If I was the only tractor driver available that would have really slowed down the launch of the vehicle and lifeboat into the sea," he said. Sarah Whitelaw, who volunteers at Cullercoats RNLI, said: "When someone is in the water and needs assistance, every second counts."She said that she appreciated that parking around Cullercoats was difficult, but keeping the accessibility ramp car-free at all times was essential."Quite often we launch within five to six minutes, so we need our crews to get down as soon as possible," Miss Whitelaw said."We're seeing all sorts of shouts from people swimming and getting into difficulty, to people on kayaks or paddleboards getting into distress." Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Sad plea to Aussie parents over deadly e-scooter reality: 'Higher than we expected'
"Please don't buy these for your kids." That is the desperate plea from an emergency doctor who has witnessed firsthand how devastating e-scooter collisions can be. Now, Dr Sarah Whitelaw is urging parents not to let their children anywhere near them. "They end up with lots of soft tissue and facial fractures, sometimes half or all of their teeth missing, and unfortunately sometimes really significant head injuries," Whitelaw told 7News. Her warning comes after the University of Melbourne (UoM) released shocking data revealing one in three e-scooter deaths in the last five years have been children. Experts believe youngsters' inexperience on busy roads and smaller stature, makes it easier for other road users to miss them. "The proportion [of child deaths] is much higher than we expected," Whitelaw said. 🛴 As cities axe e-scooters, personally owned ones are in a blind spot 👀 Little-known road rule could see you lose your licence 🥱 'Fed up': City's massive e-scooter call The number of Aussies dying from e-scooter usage continues to rise as the mode of transport surges in popularity. However, child fatalities are disproportionate to those of adults, and it is something experts desperately want to end. "We've identified a shocking over-representation of children... the fatalities that involve children, the vast majority of them have occurred in collisions with other vehicles," Associate Professor Milad Haghani from the UoM said. In the last five years, 30 people have died while using e-scooters in Australia— and 11 of these have been children. Queensland has the highest number of e-scooter tragedies with 15 deaths, while Western Australia and Victoria have experienced six each, NSW recorded two deaths and the ACT one. Last month a teenager was killed after colliding with a ute in Terang, a town 212km southwest of Melbourne. The fatality occurred only days after 12-year-old Summah Richards was killed in regional Queensland after colliding with another vehicle. E-scooter regulations vary from state to territory and there are calls to streamline nationwide rules in a bid to reduce the number of deaths across the country, while others want to see children completely banned from e-scooter use. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
