How serene River Severn became a killer

The victims have all been men, some have been drinking and disappeared after a night in Shrewsbury, others apparently fell in while walking along the towpath or across the town’s many bridges.

But for all, the outcome has been the same. They have been pulled from the water hours, or sometimes days, after they have been reported missing.

The majority of emergencies on the Severn involve people falling in by accident.

But over recent years, the emergency services and West Mercia Search & Rescue have also intervened in dozens of cases of people threatening to take their own lives.

In the late spring and early summer, there was a spate of people threatening suicide in and around the River Severn. In March, police were called out three times in 24 hours to reports of people close to the River Severn in Shrewsbury expressing suicidal feelings and threatening to commit suicide. And earlier in the month two people were pulled from the freezing waters and treated for hypothermia.

According to the RNLI, there are an average of 400 drownings per year in the UK with a further 200 suicides in the waters.

Danger

And according to figures released by the Local Government Association, last year 255 people died as a result of accidental drowning, including seven children under the age of nine.

The LGA, which represents 370 councils in England and Wales, said with more people likely to be out near water during one of the longest spells of hot weather for many years, the public needs to be vigilant to the dangers of drowning, especially parents with children.

Councillor Simon Blackburn, chairman of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said: “The deaths of those who have drowned are an absolute tragedy and the numbers who die every year from drowning are shocking.

“Councils want to make sure everyone is safe around water, which is why we are urging people to follow our advice to be careful and vigilant to the dangers.”

One of those to lose his life to the River Severn was father-of-two Shane Walsh, who died last September. He had been on an evening out with friends. Somehow, he fell in to the waters close to the Quantum Leap statue on Smithfield Road. The 29-year-old was reported missing on September 3 and his body recovered on September 6 from water near Frankwell Quay.

On December 2, Dwight Jeffrey-Shaw fell in to the water.

His body was found near Castle Walk footbridge the following day.Prompted by a series of deaths, Team Shrewsbury – a partnership working group between charities, emergency services and other organisations – has implemented a string of new initiatives to stop even more tragedies.

One of these has seen bar staff trained in water rescues, and a number of bars have received river safety kits containing throw lines and life jackets.