Baby crawled out door to water

A Rolleston family have spoken of their grief after a baby boy drowned after falling into a water race during a family barbecue.

Eleven-month-old Samuel Taufaeteau managed to crawl from the front door of the home in Tennyson St and all the way to the front of the garden before tumbling into the shallow waterway.

He was rushed to hospital in a critical condition but died a few hours later on the afternoon of September 30.

Samuel’s aunt, Lola Tupou, told Stuff the front door was unlocked.

‘‘One of the kids opened [the door], he crawled all the way there.

‘‘We’re just so sad at the moment. We’re trying to move from this house, we don’t want to stay here any more.’’

Barriers have since been put up by the water race to make the area safer, and Tupou said the door would remain locked from now on.

Samuel was buried on Friday and his death has been referred to the coroner.

Selwyn District Council chief executive David Ward declined to comment on the cost of fencing or restricting access to water races.

Four people have drowned on the South Island in recent weeks.

As well as Samuel’s death, 4-year-old Reuben Nolan was found dead in an effluent pond on the West Coast in September and a week ago Nadine and Angus Tomlinson died after their tractor tumbled into a North Otago dam.

STACY SQUIRES/STUFF Family members lay flowers where an 11-month-old child drowned after falling into a water race in Rolleston, south of Christchurch. The child was found by relatives a short time later and was taken to Christchurch Hospital but later died.