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Family photoQuestions about 999 call handler training to locate serious incidents more quickly have been raised by the family of a 13-year-old boy who died while swimming in a river, an inquest has heard.
Kane Edwards’s body was found trapped underwater by a tree after he got into difficulty in the River Tawe just outside Swansea Enterprise Park in May 2022.
Despite a “frantic” 45-minute search, the “extremely fast-running” and “murky” water made it impossible to save him.
At the inquest in Swansea on Tuesday, the family also questioned why the nearest lifebuoy was a 20-minute walk away from where Kane died.
On Monday the court heard Kane’s post-mortem examination confirmed he had died from drowning after going into freezing water at a river with rock weirs and deep pools, where he became trapped by the current.
During the hearing, Welsh Ambulance Service call handler Hannah Stanley said locating the incident was difficult as the what3words app failed, though her call handling met required standards.
Coroner Edward Ramsay also questioned the service manager of the Welsh Ambulance Service Andrew Garner and asked if “valuable time had been lost” in establishing the location of the incident.
Mr Garner said the ambulance service discussed the incident but found no full report needed, after a passer-by gave the wrong-side-of-the-river address due to the app failing.
He explained how a location automatically identified by the ambulance service’s computer system was then used with 95% accuracy, but no manual alert was sent to responders.
On Monday, questions were also raised about revisiting the location 15 minutes into the 999 call.
This came after what the coroner described as other “important” questions, but not as important as “identifying the precise location”.
Mr Garner said the computer system was “designed to ask the most pertinent questions”.
On Tuesday, Mr Garner told the family call handler training had been improved so automatic location systems were now used first before asking callers for more detail.
The court heard neither Kane’s friend, who was swimming with him, nor the police could initially provide a precise location, until the boy suggested a suitable spot for emergency services to park on the correct side of the River Tawe.
Mr Garner said crews were dispatched to a nearby point, with the location “updated en route” as more accurate information came in.
He explained call handlers must follow set prompts in order, and skipping them would have delayed the dispatch of the specialist Hazardous Area Response Team (HART).
He stressed the “fine tuning” of the location did not affect HART’s response time from Bridgend.
The inquest also heard from Swansea Council’s Water Safety Manager, Andrew Suter, who said there had been no previous incidents at the site before Kane’s death.
Since then, the area has been risk assessed, with warning signs put up along the river, a lifebuoy placed at a fishing platform upstream, and plans to plant hawthorn bushes near the weirs to deter swimmers.
But Kane’s family said children were still swimming there and questioned why no lifebuoy had been installed at the exact spot where he died.
Mr Suter said a lifebuoy could give a false sense of security, but agreed to reassess the site when pressed by the family.
The inquest continues.
