Pub crawl canal death

Published: Thursday, 24 March 2011

A MAN who drowned in the Erewash Canal at Long Eaton had been on a pub crawl just hours before he walked the canal towpath and fell in.

It was told at Derby Coroner's Court that Sam McKane had drunk 10 pints of Guinness, in 'five or six pubs' then went home to walk his dog along the towpath, but fell in and drowned, Alan Tilbury tells us.

New Year's Eve

The court heard that he had been on a pub crawl in Long Eaton with colleagues just hours before he was found in the freezing water of the canal on New Year's Eve.

It was his wife that made the shocking discovery, who had gone out to search for him after he did not return. His dog, Milo, was  still  by the side of the waterway, waiting.

Heart attack

It was believed Sam McKane fell and fractured his skull on ice on the canal, then died of a sudden heart attack caused by the water temperature as he was immersed.

The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.