Woman dies after rescuing son from rip
A British woman trying to save her son and a teenage boy have both drowned in separate incidents on northern NSW beaches over the weekend.
The woman and her family were pulled from the surf at Diggers Beach, Coffs Harbour on Sunday evening after they got into trouble in a strong current.
The 49-year-old had reportedly been trying to save her son from the rip when she became unconscious.
Efforts to resuscitate the woman failed and she was declared dead at hospital.
On Saturday, Bronson Rhodes also drowned at a NSW beach after he vanished in rough surf off Port Macquarie.
The 14-year-old was swimming with two mates outside the flagged area at Flynns Beach when they got into difficulty.
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A search for the teen turned into a retrieval operation on Sunday after his body was sighted.
Police, Marine Rescue NSW, Surf Life Saving NSW and the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter resumed the search at first light on Monday.
It's the second presumed drowning in the Port Macquarie area in the past two weeks.
An 11-year-old ACT boy was caught in a rip in rough conditions at the nearby unpatrolled Lighthouse Beach on December 6.
On Thursday, Surf Life Saving Australia released its 2016-17 drowning data, revealing there were 116 coastal drowning deaths across the country in the past year.
The figure is a nine per cent reduction on the previous year, but is still the third highest number of fatalities recorded in the past 13 years.
The data revealed 83 percent of the recorded fatalities were men.
NSW experienced the highest number of drowning fatalities since 2008-09 with 41 people tragically losing their lives in waterways across the State. This includes 17 drowning deaths over the 9 days between Christmas and 2 January, 2017.
“These findings show that there is still work to be done in driving a national agenda on water safety education, and in promoting safe practices such as swimming between the red and yellow flags and wearing a life jacket,” Graham Ford AM, President of Surf Life Saving Australia said.
"With government, community, business and water safety agencies working together, we can make a difference.
“We are imploring all Australians to take extra care when undertaking water related activities on our coastlines.”
In a statement to Yahoo7, NSW Ambulance Inspector John Brotherhood said swimmers need to "look for rips, swim between the flags, and obey instructions from lifeguards."
"We know that physical activity increases the risk of things like asthma or cardiac arrest, and people need to understand that if these things happen while swimming, then obviously that greatly increases their chances of drowning," he said.
"The best advice is to err on the side of caution when it comes to assessing your own physical fitness in the water – because if you end up in trouble while in the water, the consequences can be dire, as these figures indicate."
