Man died in river after road closure sign removed

A lifelong Norwich City fan who was driving home from a match drowned in a river after a road closure sign leading to a ford was left face down by the roadside, a coroners' court heard.

Barry Howard, 75, died when his car was swept 30m (100ft) down the River Tas near Newton Flotman on 13 December.

At his inquest, Norfolk County Council said it did not know how the sign at Shotesham Ford ended up on the verge of Mill Lane and that it was working on a permanent safety solution.

Area coroner Samantha Goward said she was concerned by the council's response to the "tragedy", and that it should take action to prevent future deaths.

"My concern is that people may not realise that stretch of road can lead to a car being swept into a river," she said.

The inquest heard Norfolk Police had been called to nine previous incidents involving trapped vehicles at the ford.

The inquest heard that on 13 December no road signs warning of the ford "would have been visible" until Mr Howard was already surrounded by water, which was 0.8m deep according to the gauge in its centre.

Water covered the road about 100m (330ft) either side of the crossing.

In a statement, Mr Howard's family said of the "awful night" that they did not believe he knew the road.

"We believe he did not have the information needed to make an informed decision or understand the risks," they said.

The council said that on 21 October it was asked by police to close Mill Lane following heavy rain.

Its highways department installed a road closure sign and plastic barriers as an emergency measure, which remained in place for the seven weeks leading up to Mr Howard's death.

When questioned by Mr Howard's family as to why a more permanent solution had not been installed during those weeks, David Jacklin, council area highways manager, said: "Ideally we could have put a diversion in place but they haven’t done that and it wasn’t followed up with anything more significant."

When asked why, Mr Jacklin replied: "I don't know; I can't answer that."

The coroner also asked Mr Jacklin whether he believed Mill Lane needed a sign to warn of potential floodwater, to which Mr Jacklin replied "no ma'am".

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