A motorist who drove a Ford Transit van on to a beach in Cornwall discovered the truth of the old adage that time and tide wait for no man after the vehicle was washed into the sea.
Surreal video footage shot at Crackington Haven shows the partially submerged van sitting a short distance from shore with a rigid inflatable boat moored to it.
As the incoming tide laps gently at the vehicle, a surfer glides by nonchalantly, barely giving the bizarre scene a second glance.
‘That’s my boyfriend surfing past,’ said an unnamed local. ‘We went for a lunchtime surf, but didn’t expect to have to dodge a van and a boat.’
Gary Barnett, who witnessed the incident, said the van arrived on Friday afternoon and was still there later that evening.
‘It’s probably a write-off,’ Barnett remarked.
Locals have become all too accustomed to such scenes.
A similar incident occurred at nearby Polzeath beach less than two months ago, when a group of men attempted to extricate a pair of stricken vehicles from the sea during high tide.
A Ford Transit van became partially submerged at Crackington Haven in Cornwall after the driver parked the vehicle on the beach to launch a rigid inflatable boat
‘That’s my boyfriend surfing past,’ said an unnamed local. ‘We went for a lunchtime surf, but didn’t expect to have to dodge a van and a boat’
‘It’s probably a write-off,’ said Gary Barnett, a local resident who witnessed the incident
A similar incident occurred at nearby Polzeath beach in September, when locals had to rescue a white van left too close to the shoreline
A stricken Mercedes SUV caused much amusement among residents of Newquay last year after a tourist mistook the beach for ‘free parking’
To the bemusement of onlookers, a van and a car had been parked too close to the shoreline.
‘There were people trying to dig out not only the van but another car,’ said an eyewitness.
‘In the end, there was a group of about 15 people pushing the van back onto the sand.
‘We were just shocked to see people still falling for parking that close to the sea when the tide is coming in. By the end, the van was freed.’
In another example of ill-advised parking, a £25,000 Mercedes GLe SUV got stuck in sand on Newquay beach last year and was abandoned overnight.
Coastal residents in Cornwall are becoming increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of such episodes.
‘Not really brilliant,’ said one observer following the latest incident. ‘It’s a shame about all the fuel, diesel, oils, antifreeze and lubricants.’
