AN inquest has heard a harrowing account of the final hours of the life of Signaller Tyler Pearson, who drowned in the River Ouse in April last year.

The 18-year-old had been out drinking heavily with fellow members of Imphal Barracks-based 2 Signals Regiment, Lance Corporal John Hunter and Lance Corporal Christopher Townsend.

Tyler had been told to get in the river, and friends then joked while the soldier was in the water, not realising the difficulty he was in.

During the inquest yesterday, Coroner Jonathan Leach asked a chastened Corporal Hunter: “Is it fair to say you let him down?”

“Definitely, sir, yes,” Corporal Hunter replied.

This tragic case highlights several of the factors behind so many needless deaths in York’s rivers: the combination of alcohol, youthful exuberance and lack of awareness of the rivers’ dangers.

Tyler had only been in York two weeks when he died. But his friends had been here longer, and would have known about the tragic deaths earlier last year of two other young people, Megan Roberts and Ben Clarkson.

Yet still they underestimated the risks. Tyler’s family are now left with only their memories of a young man who loved life - and with their crushing grief.

There are no silver linings to this story: merely the senseless waste of a young life full of promise. But we hope that any young people reading this story will take to heart the lessons about just how dangerous the Rivers Ouse and Foss can be.

With warmer weather approaching, the rivers will begin to seem more tempting again.

In fact, they are treacherous and deadly.

So to anyone reading this, we say: please, please don’t forget that. We don’t want any more needless deaths.