The widow of a British man killed with his young daughter in a powerboat accident has admitted her “big mistake” in failing to use the vessel’s kill switch safety device.
Nick Milligan, known as Nicko to family and friends, and Emily, 8, died after the family of six were thrown from their boat, which then circled out of control at high speed and hit them.
His wife Victoria had been at the helm prior to the accident in Cornwall, England, on May 5, 2013.
But she had not been wearing the boat’s kill cord, which is designed to cut the power in an emergency.
At an inquest into the deaths of her husband and daughter today, she said she had been wrong not to do so.
“I remember the acceleration was not smooth and it jerked. Nicko had never caused it to jerk in this way before. I remember feeling like we had hit a wall and we all fell out. We all fell into the water. Kit was screaming as I grabbed him and Nicko was telling us to stay together,” she said in a report by The Guardian newspaper.
