Major update after ice cream van swept out to sea on Cornish beach when driver wandered off to go to the loo
THE hapless ice cream man who went to the loo while his van was swept out to sea has been fired, a colleague said yesterday.
He had left his truck unattended on the beach as the tide came in.
The unnamed man has now been sacked by Kelly’s, amid claims he got stuck on the same beach last week.
One said: “Nobody was surprised it was him.
“He does things like this all the time.
“He got sacked straight away.”
The directors of Kelly’s, which runs a fleet of vans in Cornwall, declined to comment yesterday.
Video footage shows beachgoers using a rope to try to pull the van from the sea at Harlyn Bay at the weekend.
When the tide receded at 9pm, a tractor was then able to drag the van back up the beach.
Tourist James Price, 26, said: “The ice cream man was really embarrassed.”
One local said the driver had got the van stuck on the sand the previous week.
HM Coastguard said: “Just before 5 yesterday afternoon HM Coastguard was made aware of an ice cream van that was caught by the tide at Harlyn Bay, Cornwall.
“Padstow Coastguard Rescue Team and RNLI Lifeguards were sent to ensure the safety of those involved.
“The driver was safe and well and not in the vehicle.
“The owner arranged a recovery vehicle which recovered the van at around 9.45pm when the tide receded enough for it to be safe to do so.
“Coastguard rescue officers left once the vehicle was recovered and in a safe location.”
In July last year, residents in St Ives, Cornwall, were at their wits end due to reckless tourists driving onto the sand and getting stuck.
Another daft tourist got their £55,000 Mercedes EQB stuck in the sand thinking a beach was a car park.
One livid local blasted the scene at nearby Towan Beach, in Newquay, fuming: “More money than sense.
“You buy a Chelsea tractor with 4WD and think that means it really will go anywhere. Only it won’t.”
While in June 2022, even an AA van got stuck on the sands after it was dispatched to recover a car trapped on Porth Beach in Newquay.
