Teen drowns at Wigmore’s Waterfall
Following the tragic death on Wednesday of a teenager at Wigmore’s Waterfall, Police are warning the public not to swim in creeks or streams during this period of heavy rainfall as the fast moving water and strong currents pose a serious danger.
At 5:42 pm on Wednesday afternoon, Cook Islands Police received a call from a distressed citizen of a possible death at Wigmore’s Waterfall.
The Herald spoke with Police on Thursday morning about the tragedy.
“On police arrival they found a local and tourist man giving the deceased mouth to mouth resuscitation and CPR,” said Inspector John Strickland who is in charge of general policing and traffic.
The deceased, a 16 year old male, had arrived at the waterfall with a friend on Wednesday afternoon to have a swim. The two teens were the only people occupying the waterfall at the time.
Police say that the deceased had dived into the creek and had not resurfaced after a long period of time prompting his friend to go back down the hill to call for help.
According to Police, the probable cause of death is thought to be drowning.
“We believe it was a large amount of water breakage from the creek on top of the waterfall leading into the pool of water where the victim had drowned, that held him down causing him to lose air and drown,” said Inspector Strickland.
An investigation by police found signs that water had indeed been building up in the stream above the waterfall causing a large amount of water to rush down the creek as a powerful and fast moving current.
Police would like to warn the public to not swim in any streams during this time of heavy rain as the currents can be very strong and flash floods can occur.
Police are happy there have been no vehicle crash fatalities during the long Christmas period but are saddened by this tragedy. -Tiare Ponini

Herald Issue 554 09 March
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