Daniel Lee HODGIN · Prevention of Future Deaths report

On the 31st December 2014 I commenced an investigation into the death of Daniel Lee HODGIN deceased, 20 years old. The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on the 14th April 2015 at the Shrewsbury Coroners Court. The conclusion of the inquest was accidental death. The medical cause of death was:
1a) Immersion in water

The body of the deceased was found in the River Severn at Cressage on the 31st December 2014. The deceased had last been seen alive on Sunday morning the 23rd November 2014 at 05:27 when he was recorded on a CCTV camera outside a property at Dorset Street, Castefields, Shrewsbury near to the River Severn in Shrewsbury. The distance from the River Severn by Dorset Street to Cressage was 24 miles down-stream. The deceased had been on a night out in Shrewsbury with friends and had become lost and disorientated. The post mortem and toxicology tests indicated a level of 196 mg/dL which represented a high level of alcohol in his body at the time of death. It is more likely than not that at soon after this last sighting the deceased made his way through an open gate and went the short distance down a flight of steps on to the towpath by the River Severn which was then in flood and covered the towpath. It was dark and the deceased had not been to that area before. It is likely that once on the towpath he either stepped off or slipped into the river drowning or suffering fatal shock from entering the cold water.

(1) According to a Shropshire Council plan of the Dorset Street area the gate at Dorset Street leading to the towpath should have been closed and locked when the water level at the Welsh Bridge gauge reached 1.95 meters.

(2) At between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. on the 23rd November 2014 when the deceased most likely entered the water, the level at the Welsh Bridge gauge was recorded at between 2.00 and 1.99 meters.

(3) Had the gate been closed and locked the deceased would have been unable to pass through.

(4) No clear system was established whereby the Environment Agency notified, or was required to notify, Shropshire Council as to the water level or likelihood of the water level reaching 1.95 meters at the Welsh Bridge gauge. The Council’s instruction to close and lock the gate at Dorset Street was found to fail, there being no effective system in place to achieve the same.

(5) River safety in Shrewsbury has been a matter of concern for some time. In 2010 I made what were then two Regulation 43 Reports to Shropshire Council in respect of alcohol related deaths.

(6) The concerns raised here not only affect those adversely affected by alcohol but anyone who may be unfamiliar with the area when the river is in flood and is dangerously high covering the towpath. For completeness, and this does not directly concern the Environment Agency, there was a recent reported incident of a pram being blown into the River Severn where the towpath was unprotected by railings.