Staff Reporter
A FURIOUS father has slammed ‘misleading beach signs’ after his three-year-old daughter was badly injured in a tangle with a kitesurfer in Tarifa.
Expat Mike de Coster-Milman was enjoying a day at the beach with his wife and their daughter Katja, after following a sign to the strictly windsurfers section, where they thought they would be safe.
However, while Katja was playing near the sea, she was knocked down by an out of control kitesurfer.
The cords wrapped around her throat, leaving her with severe neck lacerations, but luckily she escaped further potential injury.
“Only afterwards did a man in a chiringuito tell me that the whole beach is now a kitesurf beach – that the signs are old – but there are no new signs or any posted warnings,” Mike told the Olive Press.
“This could have been a much more serious incident if more ropes had caught her, she is really lucky,” he added.
“It could have happened to anyone, tons of families were right there on the beach that day and nobody said anything.”
Kite surfing is very dangerous because it is easy to loose control
and the forces acting on the kite can be very strong
keep well clear of any kite surfers
Wow, people still manage to surprise me – going to play with a kid to the beach which is full of kites and kites only. Common sense, anyone?
The whole beach is not a kite surf beach.
They are meant to kite the other side of Rio Jara, only.
Make a denouncia with the Guardia civil.
My five children did not suffer your daughters horror, but they were frequently shouted at, driven over whilst playing underwater doing handstands, snorkling in the ¨bathers only¨area.
I complained all the time to the Cruz Roja lifeguards.
Without physical damage, harassment was treated a lame complaint. They did nothing.
And it carried on year after year. I am from Tarifa.
I am very sorry for you and your daughter. My nightmare scenario for my children. There are many stories of the same injuries over the last decade.