Rachael Louise de Jong, 21 years old student, was swept away to her death while swimming in the Waikato River in New Zealand, Stuff.co.nz reports.
According to witnesses, De Jong was one of the four girls stuck standing on a rock when the floodgate signal was turned on and raging torrent of the Aratiatia Rapids was about to come down.
De Jong and her friends were trying to relocate to a bigger rock. The rock that were first on were a little too small to support all four of them. A man was on the bigger rock that they were trying to move onto.
The group swam across the river one by one. De Jong was the last one to jump into the water and swim across. While her three friends managed to make it through, De Jong did not. A sudden strong tide carried De Jong off the straight path and pushed her further into the water.
De Jong died from drowning. Police discovered her body lifeless in a rockpool as soon as the current calmed down.
Two German tourists witnessed the whole tragic incident. Katrin Taylor and Kevin Kiau was on the viewing platform and took a photo of the girls before they swam across to the bigger rock.
Taylor told how the incident happened to Stuff.co.nz, "We could see the water was rising further and that they were in danger of getting washed away.
"We saw the first girl made it. The guy pulled her in. The second girl jumped and made it safe as well – the guy pulled her in.
"The third girl, she jumped but the water was washing her away so the guy grabbed her.
"We couldn't see what happened after that because the rock was in the way and we had no clear view.
"There was still one girl left in the middle of the river. I'm not sure if she tried to jump, or the water was already too high, but she was gone pretty quick without making it to the safer rock, to the larger one.
"So, three people were washed away by the water and the other two girls were standing there [on the larger rock]. They were trapped because the water was left and right of the [big] rock – they couldn't go anywhere.
"We thought they would have broken bones but they would come out alive. There was nothing we could have done. We could just stand there and watch helplessly and it was horrible.”
De Jong, a student of Auckland University, was the seventh person in five days to die from popular swimming and tourist spots. The increasingly hot temperature and tempting blue skies persuaded both locals and foreigners to visit and spend time in the waters.
Jonty Mills, chief executive of Water Safety New Zealand, said, "People need to know the local conditions, and understand local conditions. Rivers are certainly an area of concern. They made up nearly 30 per cent of preventable drownings."
Mills insisted people who visit these sites should take extra precautionary measures and be more responsible in helping not only themselves but also others. He said that ‘greater vigilance’ should be demonstrated.
Mills added, “That’s up significantly on the previous year and the five-year average.”
Fraser Whineray, Mercury Energy CEO, said, “We are always looking for ways to improve safety to minimize the risks of it ever happening again.”
According to Stuff.co.nz, the floodgate opens around 1,200 times each year and considered a popular tourist attraction. Signs are scattered around the area to warn people about the possible life-threatening rapids. Sirens and flood alerts were blared every five minutes before the floodgate opens.
Whineray added, “The rapids are quite long and have corners making digital solutions for that quite a challenge. The challenge is to keep people out of that area at those times [when the water is released]."
David Trewavas, Taupo Mayor, said, “There are signs up, sirens going off so it is a case of what else can you do? We'll see what the review brings back and if there are any recommendations we can look at those and do what is required."
Mercury Energy is the company that controls the regulations of the floodgates.
