Teen boy drowns after losing rock paper scissors dare to jump in freezing reservoir

dailystar.co.uk:

teenage boy tragically drowned in a freezing canal when he lost a game of rock paper scissors and leapt to his death.Sam Haycock, 16, of Rotherham was at Ulley Reservoir with friends celebrating the end of term on the afternoon of May 28 last year when he took the deadly plunge, reports YorkshireLive.He was pulled into strong currents in the deep water after 'cannonballing' from a nearby bridge.

An inquest at Doncaster Coroner's Court heard that Sam, a popular schoolboy, was unable to swim and had recently been diagnosed with autism alongside other complex medical issues.

Senior coroner Nichola Mundy heard that Sam and his pals had been 'egging' each other on to make the first jump, and agreed for two of them to play rock-paper-scissors to decide who would go first.Sam leapt in after losing the game, but his friends quickly saw him panicking when he reached the water.

One of them, identified only as C, bravely leapt in and tried to save him. One of several adults who was there at the time, Craig Pennington, said: "I could hear what sounded like young lads laughing and joking around. "I could see four teenage boys, it sounded like they were getting more excitable.