Staff of the Gee’s pub, located in an isolated area of southwest England, say the group was stranded there because of a fatal accident that occurred in the early morning of Saturday, Jan. 5. Police had been called to the pub — with a clear road, equipment, and a roadside cafe — and the pub owner had been on the road picking up a patient. The returning driver mistakenly thought the road was open and went through it, causing two vehicles to be swept away. The accident happened on a narrow, two-lane road on the edge of a crumbling woodland. The police originally said that they believed no other vehicles were involved, but one stranded passenger, Keith Williams, 65, of Havant, Dorset, later said he “almost got in the water … I didn’t want to get a knee-deep thumping.” In total, at least five people were stranded in the pub for up to two weeks.
The British Coastguard, National Parks, and the University of Plymouth Sea Lab were eventually called in. A hasty attempt was made to rescue the stranded passengers but “crew members from the British Coastguard’s air operation were advised at 1:58pm on Saturday to abandon their attempt to winch the passengers to safety because of the extreme weather conditions and lower capabilities.” A Coastguard spokesman told the Independent newspaper that he was “remarkably calm” and took the migrants who had been sitting “under a tree on a scrap of beach.”