Taking measures to improve safety along the banks for York's rivers

JACKIE Roberts feels a strange kind of comfort when she stands beside the River Ouse.

It was here that, on a freezing January night last year, her daughter Megan drowned after falling into the river following a night out drinking with friends.

The 20-year-old York St John University fine arts student had been walking home with friends from Popworld nightclub. Her friends didn't realise she was no longer with them and continued over Lendal Bridge into the city centre.

Megan's body was found six weeks later in the river near Acaster Malbis: weeks of unutterable anguish for the young woman's mother.

Jackie has every reason to hate this river. And yet there is something else, too.

"I feel quite connected to Megan when I'm here," she says. "It is emotional, but there are some good memories as well. She loved it in York. She was enjoying herself, and she made some lovely friends."

It seems almost certain that Megan fell into the river from the steps that run down to the water beneath the southern end of Lendal Bridge.

Jackie believes she had probably followed a young male student who had gone to relieve himself in the river - as young men sometimes do.

It was dark and poorly lit under the bridge; and the man wouldn't even have noticed that Megan had followed him. "It wasn't his fault," Jackie says.

The waters of the River Ouse flow swift and dark here. On a chilly day in early April, they look anything but inviting.

To Jackie, it is obvious that this river - along with York's other river, the Foss - is a natural hazard. She can't understand why so many people don't seem to realise this.

"It's as dangerous as a road," she says. "People should just be aware of the dangers. I don't think, even now, that people are really aware of the dangers."

They certainly weren't last year. Tragically, Megan wasn't the only young person to die.

A few weeks after she fell into the River Ouse, 22-year-old former student Ben Clarkson drowned in the Foss after apparently falling in while walking home, again after an evening drinking with friends.

That was on March 1. The following month, there was yet another tragedy.

Teenage soldier Tyler Pearson drowned in April while trying to swim from King's Staith to Queen's Staith, near Ouse Bridge. Again, he had been drinking heavily.

RIVER DEATHS: From left, Megan Roberts, Ben Clarkson and Tyler Pearson

Following the spate of deaths, high-profile river safety campaigns were launched in York.

The Royal Lifesaving Society (RLSS) began offering York students lifesaving training. The Press revived its own river safety campaign, originally launched in 2011 following the death of bartender Richard Horrocks, who had drowned in the bitterly cold Ouse after jumping in and trying to swim across.

York's two universities also took action: York St John launched its Plan Safe, Drink Safe, Home Safe campaign, while York University gave safety briefings to all first year students about the dangers of the city's rivers and, in the autumn term, started a new Nightsafe service with volunteers patrolling the city centre and riverside areas during student club nights.

The city council, meanwhile, commissioned a river safety action plan, which included a new safety information pack for schools.

Then, last October, following a report from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) which further warned of the dangers of the city's rivers, the council earmarked £100,000 to pay for new river safety improvements.

Those improvements have included installing 65 new high-visibility lifebelts at strategic points along the banks of both rivers; repairing riverside steps and viewing platforms; and installing chain-link fencing at points thought to be particularly dangerous: including the steps where Megan is thought to have fallen in.

So how effective have the measures been?

Jackie, who herself has now taken on a high-profile campaigning role with the RLSS, admits that she wasn't at first too impressed with the chain-link fencing installed at the point where her daughter fell in the river.

She thought it was too flimsy, she says - and that it wouldn't be able to stop someone falling in.

During the course of a walk along the riverbank to inspect the new safety improvements with the city council's assistant director for community safety Steve Waddington, however, she was persuaded otherwise.

A chain link fence was better than a solid barrier, Mr Waddington insisted, because people couldn't stand on it and risk falling in.

Once pulled tight - at the moment, like much of the rest of the chain-link fencing lining dangerous points of the river, the chains are too loose - it would be effective, Mr Waddington insisted. "They will all be tightened."

Jackie accepted that: but it didn't stop her grilling Mr Waddington on other issues.

Would there be better lighting beneath Lendal Bridge, she asked?

The lights beneath the bridge are linked to those on the bar walls - and when they bar walls lights go out, these do to. "But this is a thoroughfare, so we will be putting some extra lighting in," Mr Waddington said. "It will happen."

Jackie approved of the new lifebelts, in their bright orange casings. Each has instructions about how to use it, and the ropes are now 30 metres long rather than fifteen metres, as before. "They have floating ropes, so somebody in the river can see them," said Mr Waddington. A much better design, Jackie conceded.

On the riverbank at North Street, Mr Waddington showed where tree branches had been trimmed, so it was easier to see where life-belts were positioned.

"And what about grab chains?" Jackie asked.

These are chains that hang down the river banks, so that anyone in the river can grab hold of them and hopefully haul themselves out. "That's planned," Mr Waddington said.

"There are grab chains, but they are being reinstated."

 Floral tributes next to the memorial plaque on Kings Staith for Paul Alan Rogerson who died in the River Ouse       

It was good to see the council putting safety improvements along stretches of the river bank that it controlled, Jackie said. But what about businesses that fronted onto the river. We they being made more aware of the dangers?

"We're talking to private landowners," Mr Waddington said. Many businesses were already aware of the need for river safety measures, he said. Pubs and bars, for example, had introduced breathalysers so door staff could check if they felt someone had had too much to drink.

At the end of the day, of course, only so much can be done to make York's riverbanks physically safer.

So a big part of any safety campaign involves raising awareness about the dangers of York's rivers.

It is not only young people who have been out for a night on the town who are at risk, stressed Steve Waddington. Last year, for example, the body of 41-year-old York GP Dr Mandeep Ahluwalia was also found in the River Ouse.

But youthful high spirits, combined with alcohol, do often seem to be a contributing factor to river tragedies.

Jackie is still astonished that so many drinkers on King's Staith choose to sit on the edge of the riverbank, with their legs dangling over.

So what message would she have for them?

"Just beware of the danger!" she said.

Mr Waddington had a similar message.

No-one was saying people should not come out in the evening to enjoy themselves in the coming spring and summer months, he said.

It was just about being aware: and about looking out for everyone else in your group. People should keep track of who they were with, make sure they were still safe - and treat the Ouse and Foss with the respect they deserve.

"One thing that people underestimate is the strength of the river," he said of the Ouse. "Even in summer it is cold, and there is an undercurrent that's really moving. It is dangerous."

Safety work a priority

River safety measures installed by City of York Council since last year include:

• 65 new high-visibility lifebelts with 30-metre ropes

• New chain link fencing at certain 'high risk' points, such as beneath Lendal Bridge where Megan Roberts is thought to have fallen in the river

• Improved fencing at the Blue Bridge and other points

• Repairs to riverside steps and viewing platforms

• Ongoing review of grab-chains to help people climb out of the river There are also ongoing river safety campaigns.

The city council, through the Safer York Partnership, works with the police to raise awareness in pubs and bars about the dangers of drinking too much.

York University gives safety briefings to new students, including river safety information focussing on the dangers of York’s rivers.

The university's students' union also runs a NightSafe scheme, in which volunteers patrol the city centre on student nights.

This is not specifically a river safety scheme - NightSafe volunteers are not trained in river rescue. They do, however, advise people to stay away from the rivers and will alert the emergency services if anyone gets into difficulty.

Last summer York St John University launched a 'Plan Safe, Drink Safe, Home Safe' campaign, which advised students on how to have a good, but safe, night out.

The campaign was repeated in September during Fresher's Week, and again this January.

York Rescue Boat's trial run

York's new river rescue boat had its first run out last week.

It was a trial run only, admits rescue boat founder and director of operations Dave Benson. But the hope is the boat, entirely funded by donations, will be formally launched within the next couple of months.

Staffed by volunteers, the boat will aim to patrol the waters of the River Ouse on nights thought to be a particular risk - Friday and Saturday nights, race nights, and the nights of major student events.

All crew members will be trained in life-saving, and the boat will be quipped with oxygen, defibrillators, throw ropes, grab poles, and thermal imaging scopes to help spot people in the water.

It will patrol the city centre stretches of the water until 2.30 or 3am on selected nights - sometimes going as far as the Millennium Bridge and Clifton Bridge, said Mr Benson.

As well as keeping an eye out for anyone falling or jumping into the river, the boat will also keep a look-out for vulnerable people on the river's banks, Mr Benson said.

There have been a number of sexual assaults, he pointed out. "A lot of vulnerable people walk along beside the river."