A man has passed away after his friends pushed him into the water “for a laugh” on his 30th birthday celebration.
29-year-old Simon ‘Sly’ Houlder from Bubwith, England, was out celebrating his 30th birthday with six of his friends when a prank turned into a disaster.
According to the reports, the friends were drinking and having fun on a boat in the Norfolk Broads when Houlder was pushed into the river “for a laugh.”
After falling into water, the 29-year-old started swimming towards the boat as his friends reversed the vessel in an attempt to pick him up.
While two other guys previously managed to safely climb back into the boat after getting pushed into the water, Houlder ended up getting trapped and sliced by the sharp propeller at the back of the boat.
“Simon came within a meter of the back of the boat and it dawned on him the boat wasn’t stopping. I could see fear etched on his face,” one of the friends, Frederick Collins, told the inquest according to BBC.
While the friends allegedly shouted at the 29-year-old in an attempt to get him to move out of the boat’s way, the loud noise generated by the boat could have contributed to their warnings not being heard by Houlder.
After the boat hit the 29-year-old, the man “disappeared under the water,” prompting his friends to jump into the water to rescue him. Meanwhile, Houlder reappeared at the water surface and screamed in agony.
After sustaining “a significant injury to his left leg,” the man was airlifted to hospital. On September 15, one day before his 30th birthday, Houlder succumbed to hemorrhage.
According to Assistant Coroner Johanna Thompson, the death was not being treated as suspicious. As she said, there’s “nothing untoward about the activity, it was just young men enjoying themselves and having fun.”
Our thoughts are with Houlder’s family and friends during these hard times.
Replaced!