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Simply unspeakable


fender

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I've just seen this news and it distresses me greatly.

 

I wonder just how far the waterways can be a weapon of destruction, I'm not really sure what happened here on the Ashton, and the sad thing is that poor girl seemed to be enjoying the waterway, obvlious of the immenent and terrible danger, and whether it was carelssness by a boater or simple lack of maintenance, but whatever happened I am sure that the health and safety will bear down even more and it will mean less fun on the waterways.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7470586.stm

Edited by fender
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Poor girl, what a nightmare.

 

Have to wonder though were were the parents, canals are dangerous places for adults let alone kids. I'm assuming no adults were presant, as the article states her friends opened the bridge to free her.

 

Railways are mostly sealed off now due to the attraction kids have with them, maybe there should be an age limit for children to be allowed on canals unsupervised.

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That's terrible.

 

I thought it was impossible to leave a lift bridge in the "open" position?

 

And I know hindsight is a brilliant thing but I would not sit below an open bridge with my legs dangling in the recess upon which it sits. That would be like holding your fingers in the hinge of a door.

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I wouldn't be at all surprised (to put it mildly) if she and her friends had been messing around on the bridge. Simply can't see how that could just happen spontaneously. It's difficult to suggest that it might have been their own fault (and of course it MIGHT not have been) but sometimes you have to. Otherwise BW, boaters, everyone else will be made responsible for stopping it happening again, when what's really needed is for people to take responsibility for themselves and behave sensibly in potentially dangerous situations.

 

People simply should know better than to sit on swing bridges with their legs hanging over the sides. The more we try to protect people from themselves, the more this sort of thing will happen.

 

The waterways are not a weapon of destruction. It is not unspeakable. It's a horrible accicent.

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I have always wondered how certain things have "avoided" the gaze of health and safety

 

Cyclists hairing past boats with children on - on the towpath

Deep locks with not even a warning sign

People being given boats with no training and sent into the wild wild west or out onto a tidal river in flood (I've seen it!)

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maybe there should be an age limit for children to be allowed on canals unsupervised.

 

Wow, that would work. A bit like making it illegal to stab another human being.

 

 

That's terrible.

 

I thought it was impossible to leave a lift bridge in the "open" position?

 

I think it is a swing bridge, not a lift bridge

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Double amputation for bridge girl

 

Jade Smethurst had both legs amputated below the knee

A 15-year-old girl has had both her legs amputated after they became trapped in a swing bridge she was sitting on in Greater Manchester.

 

Jade Smethurst, from Abbey Hey, Gorton, was with friends at the Yew Tree Swing Bridge on Buxton Lane, Droylsden, Tameside, when the accident happened.

 

It is thought she was dangling her legs over the edge when the bridge swung back, trapping her against the bank.

 

She had both legs removed below the knee following the accident on Friday.

 

The heavy steel bridge over the Ashton Canal is fixed at one end, opening like a gate, to allow barges to travel along the waterway.

 

Swing bridges are locked and can only be opened with a key, which is issued to boaters.

 

It is unclear why the bridge was unlocked and an investigation is under way to discover if the bridge was left unlocked by a boat user or vandalised.

 

Investigation opened

 

Friends of Jade, who is a Year 10 pupil at Wright Robinson Specialist College, are said to have pushed the bridge open to free her before the emergency services arrived.

 

She was treated at the scene by a specialist trauma medical team during the incident at about 2030 BST and was taken to Manchester Royal Infirmary where she underwent the emergency amputation.

 

She has since been transferred to Booth Hall Children's Hospital where her condition is described as "comfortable".

 

 

We are investigating the incident which we are treating as a tragic accident

 

GMP spokesman

 

Jade's mother, Wendy, said: "None of us is thinking straight at the moment. It is still a nightmare we are going through and it's still a blank.

 

"At the moment she is comfortable and we have not really spoken to her about it. I've not spoken to anybody properly about what happened.

 

"We'd like to thank the emergency services, the doctors and nurses at Manchester Royal Infirmary and Booth Hall and her loyal friends who helped."

 

British Waterways, the Greater Manchester Police and the Health and Safety Executive are investigating the accident.

 

A spokeswoman for the North West Ambulance Service said: "When paramedics arrived at the scene they found she had suffered horrendous injuries and a medical team was called.

 

"They gave her a lot of pain relief as she had traumatic fractures."

 

A police spokesman added: "We are investigating the incident which we are treating as a tragic accident."

 

A spokeswoman for British Waterways said: "We are conducting an investigation into the incident and cannot really comment until we know exactly what has happened."

 

 

BBC News.

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That really is truly awful, poor girl.

 

It isn't hard to get hold of BW keys, or any keys come to that, so messing about with the bridge isn't hard to imagine happening.

 

As to the parents? Young people of this girl's age deserve and have to have a good amount of freedom. Without a very good reason for grounding them, could or would you stop a fifteen year-old going out with their friends? You have to rely on their developing commonsense, combined with your guidance, to keep them out of most dangers . . .

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Wow, that would work. A bit like making it illegal to stab another human being.

 

 

There's and age limit for children going into pubs. Arcades, swimming pools, cinima's; zoos; theme parks, even some stores only allow younger children in if supervised by an adult. What stabbing has to do with it is beyond me :lol:

 

If there was such a rule then boaters and any other adults on the canal system could identifty any young people on the canal unsupervised, and divert them from what is a dangerous environment as they would in affect be trespassing. I would sooner a child be escorted off the canal than drowning is some lock, or indeed what has happened to this young 10yo

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There's and age limit for children going into pubs. Arcades, swimming pools, cinima's; zoos; theme parks, even some stores only allow younger children in if supervised by an adult. What stabbing has to do with it is beyond me :lol:

 

If there was such a rule then boaters and any other adults on the canal system could identifty any young people on the canal unsupervised, and divert them from what is a dangerous environment as they would in affect be trespassing. I would sooner a child be escorted off the canal than drowning is some lock, or indeed what has happened to this young 10yo

This is all very well but there are more kids killed, maimed or injured every year, on the roads, than have been killed, maimed or injured, on the canals, in anyone here's lifetime.

 

Knee-jerk reactions to a tragic accident will lead to canal closures, because this sort of tragedy is possible.

 

Kids take risks. Some of them get hurt. Most of them don't.

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Not wishing to be judgmental but a couple of salient points (maybe).

 

The BBC report mentions 'barges' on the Ashton Canal. Shows how well-informed that reporter is (not).

 

This was a local lass aged 15, out and about on a summer evening. Almost certainly not involved with boating, and therefore she and her mates had no business to be alecking about with a movable structure on the canal.

 

When people meddle with things they shouldn't, people get hurt. Sometimes it's innocent people, sometimes it isn't. As a society we either accept it, or we prevent anyone from doing anything remotely dangerous. I can't help thinking that if young people were encouraged to do more real 'risky' stuff in a more organised way, they would have more chance of understanding risks and consequences. Nobody is served by wrapping the vulnerable in cotton wool.

 

Sorry if this seems heartless, but whenever I've come across local 'yoof' misbehaving near the cut, they almost invariably (i) know they are doing something they shouldn't, and (ii) don't realise how dangerous it is.

 

Rant over.

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Total speculation - somebody left their key behind in the lock and the kids couldn't resist?

 

One assumes the kids started the swing, got up lots of momentum and then bang - disaster!

 

I guess the obvious technical answer is to put a couple of latches in the path of the swing, so that the bridge stops at one or two points and has to be released to continue. Takes the momentum out and gives bystanders time to appreciate what is happening.

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Shocking and horrific.

 

Doesn't matter if the youngster was messing about its still horrific.

 

I hope someone with some savvy can design this out of swing bridges. DUnno what, some mechanism That puts a barrier across the gap as bridge swings?

 

BW keys are easy to get, but if a key was involved it was a boater no doubt.

 

ANyone on here from that part of the world?, wish we could do something for the kid.

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Not wishing to be judgmental but a couple of salient points (maybe).

 

The BBC report mentions 'barges' on the Ashton Canal. Shows how well-informed that reporter is (not).

 

This was a local lass aged 15, out and about on a summer evening. Almost certainly not involved with boating, and therefore she and her mates had no business to be alecking about with a movable structure on the canal.

 

When people meddle with things they shouldn't, people get hurt. Sometimes it's innocent people, sometimes it isn't. As a society we either accept it, or we prevent anyone from doing anything remotely dangerous. I can't help thinking that if young people were encouraged to do more real 'risky' stuff in a more organised way, they would have more chance of understanding risks and consequences. Nobody is served by wrapping the vulnerable in cotton wool.

 

Sorry if this seems heartless, but whenever I've come across local 'yoof' misbehaving near the cut, they almost invariably (i) know they are doing something they shouldn't, and (ii) don't realise how dangerous it is.

 

Rant over.

 

She seems to have got 5 years younger part way through the article.

 

Friends of Jade, who is a Year 10 pupil at Wright Robinson Specialist College, are said to have pushed the bridge open to free her before the emergency services arrived.
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She seems to have got 5 years younger part way through the article.

 

Year 10 is what we used to call the 4th year. Age 14-15

 

Yes, poor kid. No less so if it was her own fault. But we shouldn't let our compassion blind us to the possibility - even probability - that it was her own fault, and that of her mates.

 

If a friendly adult could have pointed out the (obvious) dangers perhaps, then the accident might not have happened. But any adults were probably too busy tutting about, or scared of, a group of teenagers larking about.

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There's and age limit for children going into pubs. Arcades, swimming pools, cinima's; zoos; theme parks, even some stores only allow younger children in if supervised by an adult.

So where would you set the age that somebody could not be on a canal unsupervised ?

 

This girl is fifteen.

 

I was happy to let my son go fishing with a friend by this age. Should that no longer be allowed ? In many ways the canal can sometimes represent the safest way of getting from A to B on foot. Do we restrict that only to adults ?

 

My heart goes out to the girl and her family, but my guess is that this will not be the result of some disastrous failure of something mechanical, or some related safety system. It is likely to be the tragic result of kids messing about with something, unaware of the risks they were taking.

 

Incidentally, the BWB key has not changed since (at least) the start of 1970s, and as the number of things that require them has increased, so must the number of them which have been lost. I would suspect that many of the youth who want to unlock things have long since acquired one left in a water point, sanitary station, lock, or whatever. I'm not saying that's what happened here, but there must be huge numbers in the possession of precisely those that BW is trying to defend against. (One of ours was found).

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There's and age limit for children going into pubs. Arcades, swimming pools, cinima's; zoos; theme parks, even some stores only allow younger children in if supervised by an adult. What stabbing has to do with it is beyond me :lol:

 

If there was such a rule then boaters and any other adults on the canal system could identifty any young people on the canal unsupervised, and divert them from what is a dangerous environment as they would in affect be trespassing. I would sooner a child be escorted off the canal than drowning is some lock, or indeed what has happened to this young 10yo

 

The difference being that they are all controlled environments, unlike a canal towpath. Re stabbing comment I was simply making the point that laws don't always (seldom?) work. As for telling 15 year olds to please remove themselves from the dangerous environment whilst going through Aston, not me thank you.

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I've just remembered, the last time I did Aston locks, there were some bunches of flowers on the towpath. My chum, who was lock wheeling, said to a 15ish youth who was hanging about nearby "has someone drowned here". The reply was "Nah my sister got stabbed her last week!!!"

 

I rest my case.

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Life would be safer if lengthsmen were still employed. However kids will be kids. I just find it so sad that this girl had no idea that when playing with her friends she would loose her legs. A bit more street cred and she would have been OK.

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Are the proponents of lengthmen suggesting....

 

1) They might have been on site to stop this happening - this seems highly unlikely, given the size of patch they operated.

 

or

 

2) That they would be out there generally educating the local youth of the dangers of the canals - it still seems highly unlikely that they would have pre-educated this particular group of friends about the dangers of this situation.

 

I've spent a long while educating my kids about canal saftety, (although they still take what I consider to be risks), but "don't dangle your legs where the swing bridge could end up closing" is not one that immediately springs to mind.

 

Although several times recently I've had to warn (other) kids that continuing to hang their legs over the coping stones as I'm trying to bring 15 tons of boat in is not to be recommended.

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