A mum has warned people about danger at a popular dog-walking beach.
Kate Benson was at Crosby sand dunes with her two children and partner when she tripped on a wire, leaving her with a fat lip and bruising across her body.
The 38-year-old, from Waterloo, is now looking to warn families and dog owners who visit the beauty spot to keep an eye out and be careful in case the same happens to them.
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The mum-of-two told the ECHO : "It was New Year's Eve and we went down to the beach with the kids. We were playing in the sand dunes."
She added: "We were running around on the sand dunes playing and they ran ahead of me so I was chasing them. I ran down a trail, as you do, leading down to one of the coastal paths where there are tiles. I got to the bottom and this wire was along the bottom that caught me right above my ankle.
"I literally faceplanted the tiled pathway. I busted my lip and I was just in complete shock. I really hurt my elbow and one side of my body. My husband took us home and my kids were just crying because they had seen me go flying and hit my face on the floor. As a couple of days went by it was like a pure whiplash injury. Back, shoulder, everything.
"I've had to have physio for it because it really did hurt me, I was just bruised from top to bottom. I had marks on my ankles where the wire had caught me and my knees were bruised and swollen."
The civil servant, who hasn't returned to the beach since she took pictures of the wire on New Year's Day, initially took to Facebook to share the event and warn anyone else who might be going to the sand dunes and beach.
She wrote: "Please please everyone be careful, especially with your kids playing in Crosby sand dunes. Yesterday I was playing with my kids and ran down this trail, as you can see from the video there is a wire at an ankle height at the bottom that I didn’t see, which obviously caused me to faceplant the path. I have a wonderful fat lip and really bad bruising/muscle damage. I dragged myself back to take the pics today as was in too much shock yesterday.
"If that had been a child or a dog it would have done serious damage/injury!
"I have raised this with the council, as overall the maintenance and upkeep of Waterloo/Crosby beach has shockingly declined the last five years and not just due to covid.
"I think this is a case of actual dangerous neglect and a Health and safety issue now and such a shame as Crosby beach is our favourite place to be.
"Please be careful."
A spokesperson for Sefton Council said: “We are sorry to hear about this Waterloo resident’s experience and hope they are fully recovered from the incident.
“We would also like to thank them for drawing these wires to our attention and would be grateful if they could supply us with some more detailed information about their location.
“The dynamic nature of sand dunes means they can change significantly and sometimes overnight as a result of storms, strong winds and very high tides.
“This means the remnants of prior projects, some stretching as far back as World War II are sometimes uncovered or washed up along our coastline and, as these pictures show, can often be hard to spot.
“Site visits are undertaken daily with staff clearing away items they discover and when we are informed of items that may be hazardous, we remove them.”
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