Post by L Roebuck on Nov 15, 2005 7:16:58 GMT -5
Boy, 15, fighting for life after cave rescue drama
Brian Dooks
AN OUTING designed to give children a taste of basic caving in a low-risk environment ended with a 15-year-old boy fighting for his life last night.
Forty members of the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association recovered the schoolboy from Manchester Hole in Upper Nidderdale after a short search.
After paramedics worked on him at the scene, he was taken 20 miles to Harrogate District Hospital and placed on a life support system in the intensive care unit. His parents were taken to his bedside.
The boy was one of a party of around 12 from Tadcaster Grammar School being led by instructors from the Bewerley Park Centre for Outdoor Education, owned and run by North Yorkshire County Council.
The party was among a group of about 100 students from the school who were on the first day of a week-long residential visit to Bewerley Park at Pateley Bridge, where they were due to undertake rock climbing, canoeing and fell-walking.
North Yorkshire County Council spokesman Tony Webster said the boy went missing from the party which had gone underground at Manchester Hole and the alarm was raised when he could not be found.
Manchester Hole adjoins Goyden Pot in the stream bed of the River Nidd one-and-a-half miles north of Lofthouse, near Pateley Bridge. Last night the Nidd was at a high level.
Although Goyden Pot is a complex and potentially dangerous labyrinth into which the River Nidd flows when its level is high, Manchester Hole is not regarded as dangerous.
In high water conditions care is needed, but a trip through Manchester Hole, considered a classic river cave, can normally be accomplished by experienced cavers in about 30 minutes.
Over the past 40 years Bewerley Park instructors have given hundreds of young people their first experience of caving and it is also popular with Scouts and Cubs.
The Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association was called out just after 4pm yesterday. It was told the boy was trapped 250 metres into the cave.
The first members of the rescue team who went underground reported back to the UWFRA's incident controller Harry Long that they had found the boy in an area that had been subjected to flooding.
Mr Long said Manchester Hole was not a problem cave. "Nothing like this has happened before. It is regarded as ideal for beginners."
Late last night North Yorkshire's director of education, Cynthia Welbourn, was at Bewerley Park receiving a detailed briefing on the incident.
Both primary and secondary school children visit the centre and take part in rock climbing, hill walking, camping, sailing, orienteering, canoeing and kayaking, gorge walking, mountain biking and skiing.
Nationally, concerns about the safety of school trips and a number of high-profile court cases have led to a decline in the numbers of schools willing to take pupils on such courses.
Teachers have expressed increasing reluctance to take trips out of school and a report by school inspectors Ofsted found many children were missing out on outdoor activities.
Earlier this month, Ministers unveiled a new "manifesto" for education outside the classroom in an attempt to reverse the trend.
15 November 2005
www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1253997
Brian Dooks
AN OUTING designed to give children a taste of basic caving in a low-risk environment ended with a 15-year-old boy fighting for his life last night.
Forty members of the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association recovered the schoolboy from Manchester Hole in Upper Nidderdale after a short search.
After paramedics worked on him at the scene, he was taken 20 miles to Harrogate District Hospital and placed on a life support system in the intensive care unit. His parents were taken to his bedside.
The boy was one of a party of around 12 from Tadcaster Grammar School being led by instructors from the Bewerley Park Centre for Outdoor Education, owned and run by North Yorkshire County Council.
The party was among a group of about 100 students from the school who were on the first day of a week-long residential visit to Bewerley Park at Pateley Bridge, where they were due to undertake rock climbing, canoeing and fell-walking.
North Yorkshire County Council spokesman Tony Webster said the boy went missing from the party which had gone underground at Manchester Hole and the alarm was raised when he could not be found.
Manchester Hole adjoins Goyden Pot in the stream bed of the River Nidd one-and-a-half miles north of Lofthouse, near Pateley Bridge. Last night the Nidd was at a high level.
Although Goyden Pot is a complex and potentially dangerous labyrinth into which the River Nidd flows when its level is high, Manchester Hole is not regarded as dangerous.
In high water conditions care is needed, but a trip through Manchester Hole, considered a classic river cave, can normally be accomplished by experienced cavers in about 30 minutes.
Over the past 40 years Bewerley Park instructors have given hundreds of young people their first experience of caving and it is also popular with Scouts and Cubs.
The Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association was called out just after 4pm yesterday. It was told the boy was trapped 250 metres into the cave.
The first members of the rescue team who went underground reported back to the UWFRA's incident controller Harry Long that they had found the boy in an area that had been subjected to flooding.
Mr Long said Manchester Hole was not a problem cave. "Nothing like this has happened before. It is regarded as ideal for beginners."
Late last night North Yorkshire's director of education, Cynthia Welbourn, was at Bewerley Park receiving a detailed briefing on the incident.
Both primary and secondary school children visit the centre and take part in rock climbing, hill walking, camping, sailing, orienteering, canoeing and kayaking, gorge walking, mountain biking and skiing.
Nationally, concerns about the safety of school trips and a number of high-profile court cases have led to a decline in the numbers of schools willing to take pupils on such courses.
Teachers have expressed increasing reluctance to take trips out of school and a report by school inspectors Ofsted found many children were missing out on outdoor activities.
Earlier this month, Ministers unveiled a new "manifesto" for education outside the classroom in an attempt to reverse the trend.
15 November 2005
www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1253997
Condolances to his friends and family. Here is a link to the UK cavers forum for some added insite. 