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Family stop inches from plunging onto rocks

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Photo by Mark TatemA crew from Lowes Towing work on recovering a car that went off of the embankment near the Fairmont Southampton Princess yesterday morning.

A family came within inches of plunging 50 yards onto rocks after their SUV careered off the road yesterday morning.Kim Rhoda-Bean’s car was left perched on a wet grassy slope overlooking the steep drop, with her two young children in the back, after it fell 40 yards down a bank off South Road near the Fairmont Southampton.They were saved by Fairmont grounds staff Luscious Lindo and Derek Jones, who pulled all three to safety in a delicate operation where one false move could have sent the car tumbling onto the rocks below.“They were like angels running down the hill to save us,” Ms Rhoda-Bean, 39, told The Royal Gazette yesterday afternoon.She had been taking nine-year-old daughter K’ari Bean and four-year-old son Kuhn Bean to school from their Sandys home when she skidded on oil at about 7.45am.“I lost control and I went right down the bank,” she said.“All I was saying in my head was, ‘Lord, I don’t see anywhere to stop!’“But then this little part of the cliff was sticking up and stopped us at the very last part before the drop. For sure, we could have gone right over into the water.“We were sitting there and I was saying to the children, ‘Don’t move, don’t move.’ I was so glad to see two guys from the golf course who had seen what was happening and came down to help.”Nobody was seriously injured in the accident; Kuhn went on to spend the day at Tomorrow’s Voices school, although Gilbert Institute pupil K’ari was shaken up and had the day off; the SUV suffered relatively minor damage to its steps.“I just want to tell those men thank you very much from the bottom of my heart,” said Ms Rhoda-Bean. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”The hotel’s golf director Anthony Mocklow praised Mr Lindo and Mr Jones.“They were doing their morning on the seventh green, right on the bend of that particular part of the road,” he said.“They turned around after hearing the noise of a car hitting the kerb and the next thing they saw was this car fishtailing, hitting the opposing grassy bank and going airborne over the top and down the hill.“They dropped their tools and ran towards it and saw there was a woman in the front and kids in the back. Everyone was strapped in, but they were concerned if they did anything to the car it would roll away. It was on slippery, wet vegetation.“I still can’t quite understand how they managed to do it, but they got them out through a door that was open. After that, they even got a long stick to get the woman’s personal belongings out of the car.”Mr Mocklow said at least three accidents have taken place on that spot of road in the past year.“Hopefully the road safety people can do something to make it better,” he said.

Photo by Mark TatemA crew from Lowes Towing work on recovering a car that went off of the embankment near the Fairmont Southampton Princess yesterday morning.
Photo by Mark TatemPhoto by Mark TatemA car sits on the embankment near the Fairmont Southampton Princess yesterday morning.