Drayton Manor death: Inquest shown CCTV of girl, 11, falling from water ride

An inquest into the death of a schoolgirl at Drayton Manor theme park has been shown CCTV footage of her falling from a ride.

Evha Jannath was on a school trip to the Staffordshire theme park in May 2017 when she drowned after falling off the Splash Canyon ride.

Footage shown to the jury showed the 11-year-old and four other children boarding a six-seater circular dinghy.

Towards the end Evha, who was unable to swim, can be seen standing up briefly before she is propelled into the water.

She can then be seen trying to make her way through the water towards the end of the ride.

The inquest heard how schoolmates were shouting back towards Evha, while a member of the public who was standing at the ride course’s barrier a few feet above told her to “stop” where she was.

The schoolgirl then tried to climb the travellator that carries the dinghies up to the end of the ride, but fell into a pool of water described as being around 12ft (3.65m) deep.

Eleven minutes after park staff were alerted to Evha originally going into the water, the girl was spotted “face down”.

It was another six minutes before staff were able to pull her out, when she was described as “lifeless”.

She was given CPR at the scene and then taken by medics in an air ambulance to Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where she later died.

A pathologist told the inquest the cause of her death was drowning.

The jury heard the school trip had been organised by the Jameah Girls Academy in Leicester as a reward to pupils for good behaviour and hard work.

Evha had gone on the ride around half an hour earlier, accompanied by the teacher in charge of her.

When she went on the ride a second time the teacher decided to wait at the end with another child, leaving the group of children on the ride unaccompanied.

Headteacher Erfana Bora said the teacher acted in line with the school’s health and safety policy on the day.

She said: “We can’t stipulate teachers must be on rides, as there will be instances where some children would not wish to be on the ride.

“And so in those cases it’s safer overall for the teacher to stay with that child… they make the assumption the park staff are responsible for overall safety on that ride.”

A member of the park ride staff said he observed the “good behaviour” of Evha and her friends boarding their vessel.

But CCTV showed that as soon as the ride begun, Evha and some of the other girls were leaving their seats and not keeping hold of the safety rail.

Detective Inspector John Quilty, of Staffordshire Police, who led an investigation into the incident, said: “At no point do we actually see her sat [in her seat] on the ride.”

The hearing was told that according to the theme park’s ride height restrictions, Evha was allowed aboard the vessel without an adult.

The inquest jury was told the dinghies on the Splash Canyon ride all have signs warning occupants to remain seated but that in some cases the signs had deteriorated and were illegible.

The inquest continues.

(c) Sky News 2019: Drayton Manor death: Inquest shown CCTV of girl, 11, falling from water ride