A TEENAGER from York who survived a school caving trip in which her classmate died has told a court of her terrifying underground ordeal.

Amy Ryder, a former pupil of Tadcaster Grammar School, described the moment flood water swept through Manchester Hole Cave in the Yorkshire Dales, claiming the life of 14-year-old Joe Lister. Miss Ryder, now 18, told the jury at Leeds Crown Court how the party of 11 pupils and three adults had to swim underwater through a tunnel to reach safety after the cave became flooded.

North Yorkshire County Council, which owns and operates the outdoor education centre involved in the trip, faces two charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974).

It is accused of failing to ensure the health and safety of its own employees and another charge of failing to ensure the health and safety of non-council employees.

Yesterday, the jury was shown a recording of the police interview Miss Ryder, who was 14 at the time, gave two days after the accident on November 14, 2005. She described how the group, including their maths teacher, panicked as water rose rapidly from ankle-deep to nearly shoulder-level, filling the tunnel that was their only escape route.

“He (the instructor) said we have to get through in the next minute or we are not going to get out of here,” she said. “I was scared. None of us knew what was happening. Everyone was saying we have got to get through the water, it’s getting higher, we’re going to die.”

Miss Ryder, of Copmanthorpe, said the first time she tried to swim through the passage, known as The Crawl, she had to turn back because there were too many people in an air space in the tunnel. She said she made it through the second time, but only with the help of a 17-year-old volunteer instructor who dragged her out of the water from the other end.

In the video, Miss Ryder said Joe had turned back at the same time as she had, but he had then gone through the tunnel ahead of her.

She said they only realised Joe was missing when they did a count of all the pupils at the other side.

Giving evidence in court, the teenager said some of the head torches used by the Year 10 pupils were brighter than others, which she described as “fading”, and the group only had one spare battery between them.

She said their equipment was not checked before going into the cave and they had not tried out crawling while wearing their equipment. The jury has previously been told the risk assessment for Manchester Hole was “inadequate”. The trial, which is scheduled to last six weeks, was adjourned until next week.