THE final moments of a Langley man who drowned in the Jubilee River are recounted as a water safety video is set to launch in schools.
Michael Scaife, 20, of Langley, was with Jade Spilsbury and a group of friends when his head went below the surface for the final time in August 2015.
And three years after Michael’s death, Dajarn Daly, 17, of Wexham, and 22-year-old Nayeeb Ullah Naizai also both died within weeks of each other in the Jubilee River.
The inquests ruled all three men’s death were accidental.
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The account is just part of the educational video, which also features Michael’s mum Sonia.
Sonia walks across the bridge of the Jubilee River where she sat for hours above Michael’s body waiting for speciality drivers to pull him out.
Jade said: “Just don’t go in. Don’t leave the people who love you behind.”
In the video, which is produced by Safer Slough partnership and the Environment Agency, Sonia explains the bridge has become a memorial for her family.
Both her and Jade warn others not to go into any body of water on hot days due to the water being freezing cold and the risk of cold-water shock, which Michael suffered from.
Slough Borough Council’s joint chair of the Safer Slough Partnership board, Alan Sinclair, said: “This is a really sad and salient story of a young man from Langley with his whole life in front of him, who was out on a summer’s day and having fun.
“It quickly turned to tragedy when another young man got into trouble and Michael helped get him to the edge before getting into trouble himself.
“The Safer Slough Partnership has done a lot of work to try and educate and warn people not to go in the Jubilee River and we are widening this to reach all the secondary school pupils.”
The video will be shared with secondary schools to use in their PHE lessons and will serve as a real-life warning of the dangers of jumping or swimming in waterways.
Lee Barnham, joint chair and local area commander for Thames Valley Police, said: “I am very grateful to the Scaife family and Jade for sharing their tragic experiences and for being so generous with their time in a bid to prevent this happening to anyone else.
“Over the past three years the Partnership has worked well together with services patrolling the riverbanks in hot weather, talking to individuals and families seen in the water and telling them of the unseen dangers.
“We want to reach out to young people early to warn them of the life-threatening danger of going into bodies of water in good weather. The video powerfully highlights what can happen when tempted by water on a hot day.”
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The barriers, warning signs and buoys that have been put up to stop people going in the water have to be replaced due to vandalism.
Visit Youtube to watch the video.
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