Man drowned after saving niece
Ben Gardner saved the life of his 5-year-old niece before drowning in a Central Otago river.
Gardner, 19, who was described as a strong swimmer, drowned in the Bannockburn inlet of the Kawarau River, near Cromwell, on December 10, 2016.
Coroner Marcus Elliot said in findings released yesterday that Gardner was carrying the child with him as he went out to a pontoon in the river.
He came to a point where the water became too deep to continue walking on the riverbed and began screaming to another man about weeds, indicating they affected his ability to remain afloat or to get back to an area where he could stand up.
‘‘It is more probable than not that the additional weight Mr Gardner was carrying made it more difficult to remain afloat,’’ the coroner said.
‘‘He would then have expended more energy than he otherwise would, and this energy would have been expended more quickly. A sense of panic may have also contributed.’’
The coroner said Gardner fought to remain afloat until he handed his niece to another relation. ‘‘He expended so much energy in doing so that he was unable to keep himself afloat for long enough to be rescued himself. He sank into the water and drowned.’’
Gardner had moved to Cromwell from Christchurch with his partner, Courtney Shaw, about six months earlier.
They were living with her parents, Glenn and Sheree Shaw, and went with them and their niece to the Bannockburn inlet about lunchtime on the day of Gardner’s death.
None of them had been there before.
Glenn Shaw said Gardner went fishing but decided to go home 10 minutes later to get some shorts for swimming. ‘‘We thought he could walk out to the pontoon. [Our niece] wanted to go with him. He took [her] on his back.’’
The pontoon was about 30 metres from the lake shore and the water around it was about 3.8m deep.
Gardner was about 180 centimetres tall and would have not been able to reach the bottom about 16m or 17m from the shore, the coroner said.
Shaw said when Gardner was about halfway, he called out that the bottom had ‘‘disappeared’’.
Kerry Stainton-Herbert, who was at the inlet with her grandson, heard Gardner call ‘‘help’’ from the water. ‘‘He then yelled in a panic[ked] voice, ‘it’s deep and I can’t swim’,’’ she told the coroner.
Shaw swam toward him, but also got into trouble as he was wearing jeans. Gardner passed the niece to him and he called out to Sheree Shaw, who came into the water and got the child. ‘‘I was getting dragged under,’’ Glenn Shaw said. ‘‘I managed to get my jeans off. I tried to get back to Ben but I could not find him at that stage.’’
Stainton-Herbert ran to the road to get help and stopped a car being driven by Robert Horne, a local diver.
Horne dived to look for Gardner, but was unable to find him. He asked a friend to get his diving gear so he could have a better look. He found Gardner face down in the lake weed after 22 minutes of searching.
Gardner was at a depth of 4.8m and was not tangled.
A toxicology report found there was no alcohol or drugs in Gardner’s blood.
The coroner said there did not appear to be any signs about the risks associated with swimming in the area and the presence of the pontoon implied it was suitable to swim there.
He recommended Crown Property and the Central Otago District Council erect signs warning of the water depth, presence of weeds, risks associated with swimming in the area, and the need to supervise children.
The council’s parks and recreation manager Gordon Bailey said council staff were working with Land and Information NZ on the signs. They planned to install them in mid-December.