A taxi plunged into the sea through a massive hole in Ryde pier in March 1973. The hole had been torn into the pier by the passenger ferry MV Shanklin, which had smashed into the pier in poor visibility minutes earlier. Taxi driver Paul Dyer, from Bembridge, and his passenger Edward Abbott, from Portsmouth, manage to scramble clear of the taxi before it sank. They then swam to the pier pylons before climbing up them to safety. Paul Dyer told the Daily Mirror:
“I feel lucky to be alive. “I was driving slowly along the pier because of the fog. Suddenly, the car went down through the hole into the sea.”
Passengers and crew from the ferry which had caused the hole were obliged to come ashore along a catwalk. A number of cars at the wet end of the pier were later craned off as repairs to the pier structure got underway.
I remember that cars were craned off pier on to car ferry and this was I believe the same year the hovercraft flipped over in high seas off Ryde in 73
Hovercraft disaster was March 1972.
Old Caulkhead farts were driving erratically years ago!
nowadays Wightlink would leave your car’s there and still charge you for parking