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A shocking video of a group of canoeists attempting a series of death-defying plunges from a bridge into the River Severn in Shropshire has emerged on YouTube.
The video shows about 10 teenagers laughing and joking as they take it in turns to launch each other off Porthill Bridge in Shrewsbury and fall at least 20ft into the river below.
Police today condemned the stunt as “dangerous” and “irresponsible” and said they could have been seriously injured.
The video shows the canoeists hitting the water at great speed, often capsizing on impact to the delight of their friends, before paddling to the riverbank.
At one point a woman with several young children stops in amazement to watch the spectacle, as the young men continue taking it in turns getting into the canoes before being lifted up and launched off the side of the bridge.
The video, called Bridge Jump Shrewsbury, was posted by a user called Timmy Tyler, 24, whose address is listed as the United Kingdom.
At the end of the footage the participants list their names in credits as stars of the video, which has been watched by more than 3,000 viewers and has also been commented on by a number of them.
Richard Ewels, a spokesman for West Mercia Police, today said: “This is highly dangerous and foolhardy behaviour which could result in serious injury to those involved.
“Common sense should tell them it’s dangerous and irresponsible, they are demonstrating a lack of maturity and are probably showing off to gain attention.”
Comments on YouTube indicates the canoeists were from Shrewsbury Sixth Form College. A spokeswoman for the college today condemned the actions of the young men who she said were believed to be former students.
She said: “We do not condone any behaviour like this which is clearly very dangerous.”
The spokeswoman added the college had a canoe club. But she said the college no longer loaned out canoes to students during holidays and its canoe club activities were now organised by a licensed firm not connected with the college.
The video has emerged just a day after the Shropshire Star revealed another daredevil taking part in a go-karting stunt where he is seen being pulled behind a car at 40mph on roads near Bridgnorth.
Another YouTube posting showed a teenager from Much Wenlock driving from Shrewsbury to Telford in just 10 minutes. The driver was later banned from driving for 28 days.
And two 18-year-old sixth formers from Wiltshire were given police cautions for causing criminal damage after a posting showing them driving their cars along school corridors for an end-of-term prank.
By Emma Kasprzak and Russell Roberts
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38 Comments
It looks fantastic fun – I’d have a go myself if it wasn’t for the old shrapnel wound.
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We use to do this in ironbridge as part of a school organised canoeing course, we also had to do this off the pier in Aberdovey during Outward bound coruses…..Not dangerous just great fun!
Call this news?
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What’s with the police recently?
They condemn the go-kart stunt as dangerous and irresponsible and now they say the same thing about a bunch of adventurers dropping a mere 20ft into the river with kayaks.
Both look fun to me, and I prefer to see these young buccaneers looning around enjoying themselves rather than hanging around my estate, drinking cider and burgling houses.
I have to say that in both videos, (kart and kayak), the participants display great skill and experience – no doubt they have evaluated the risks to themselves and others and gone for it.
Carry on chaps, it’s the likes of you that put the Great into Britain, only to see it taken out by molly-coddling health and safety jobsworths who even discourage children from running in playgrounds in case they trip up and graze their knees.
We need more of these full-of-life characters to regain our pride in the World.
More of these types of videos please!
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SHOCKING
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How Ironic that under the article it says it will pay you £50.00 for your video’s
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I remember the ’squaddies’ used to do some pretty crazy stunts off bridges back in the 1970s but the go kart dragged behind a moving vehicle on a public highway is in a different league IMHO.
We have strict rules of the road for good reason and if I had caused them to have stop by innocently driving along that road from the other direction and caused a fatality I would have been emotionally affected for the rest of my life.
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Looks ace!
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I completely agree with no3 (up for it),
Their having fun & not bothering anyone.
Good on you lads x
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Afraid to say this is nothing new, so you can’t blame the youth of today.
I did the same over 20 years ago.
Admittedly once was enough for me but friends made several launches.
Wonder how long it will take the police to track down those in the canoes and those pushing them in?
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I am with “up for it” in #3 to a certain extent here.
Without the likes of people like this, we would never have survived the last war, never mind the rest.
I’d like to think these are the sort of guys who would have been in the front line of the D day landings, being shot at. Hows THAT for being dangerous?
And Shropshire Star –
What are you – some sort of do-gooding pro “health and safety” crusade trawling You-tube for anything remotely dangerous that you can use for publicity?
First it was the Guy on the A5, then a guy on a two wheeled soap box cart, and now this!
I have to say – There’s NO WAY I’d upload any videos to you-tube !
It’s obvious that you run the risk of anyhting remotely “unsafe” being posted to you-tube will come back and bite you – with a little bit of help from the press!
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Eva (#6): I agree completely. The canoists are only putting themselves at risk without anyone else really invloved. The go-kart was on public roads and completely different. Other drivers could have been forced to swerve and injure themselves. Had the go-karting been on a private road it would be similar to the canoeing video. It would be just a few people being a bit silly in order to find a little excitment in their lives.
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Come on, Shropshire Star, it’s not as if they’re putting the public in danger! Let them have some fun.
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Bored that day where we Star?
All it shows is the Shropshire Star confirming their ability to report non-events as news!
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Time the police found something better to do with their time…and yes i`m an ex-policeman from Shrewsbury. I was also taught to do `seal entries` like the canoists in the film whilst in Norwar as part of a canoing course…..mine was 30` up from a cliff face. Great fun and not dangerous if you know what you`re doing. Have fun boys before we turn into a police state.
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all are wearing helmets wetsuits and lifejackets.
fantastic fun, they have assessed the risk dressed equipped appropriately and gone for it.
Nanny state in the form of the west mercia busy body police may not approve but everyone else does.
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unsafe — they are wearing Helmets and PDFs!
Would have thought their rolls would have been a little better though before trying this.
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What’s next?
Church Stretton resident in “Egg Boiling Without Safety Goggles Shocker!”
“Police have condemned Mabel Wilshire as ‘foolhardy’ and ‘dismissive of personal safety’ after she was filmed by her husband – a veteran of the Korean War who lost a finger and half a toe in the conflict – boiling an egg for five minutes, and watching the pan from less than 10 feet away without wearing eye protection. The H.S.E. and police are investigating.”
I’ve posted many video clips on the ‘tube. Many including myself, my wife, and friends indulging in some extra-curricular bedroom activities wearing black uniforms and jack-boots.
I’d want more than fifty quid from the Star though.
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Absolutely no problem as long as they have all the relevant insurance to cover any claims from the emergency services for call outs, or from members of the public traumatised, either physically or in any way otherwise, by this essential training exercise, or for any government authorities or businesses for any incidental damage they may cause.
Otherwise rock on!
Sorry to be a boring boogar.
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If it isn’t self congratulatory press releases from Monkmoor Towers it’s this sort of non-story,I wonder if they’ve ever thought of actually utilising an officer to make a cursory stroll in the area, that is if they’re not being lined up for a pat on their back for doing what officers used to do without all the handwringing.
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How is this front page news? The chance of anything going wrong here is minimal to say the least and I don’t think anyone should lose any sleep over this! The Shropshire Star is publishing a story here to appeal to people that want to be shocked and have something to moan about.
Another example of this can be seen in Monday’s edition (22/06/09). It was interesting to see the ‘you tube’ go-kart story was headline news whilst the actual death of a motorcyclist on a county road was a much smaller story. The fatal accident was to one side of the front page. Why was this? Is his death less important than a video of some stupid youths?
It must be a slow week in the news room because this is scarping the barrel of news worthiness for a regional newspaper!!
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I really don’t see the problem here… How is this more dangerous and irresponsible than running a hard river? And for Christ sake it was done in 2003, that’s 6 years ago if my maths serves me correctly!
And really, haven’t the police got better things to be doing than wasting their time condemning this? Obviously not! Oh and by the way there were more than 10 folk watching, there was a decent crowd!
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Has anyone considered above that the newspaper simply finds these stories and then calls the police for a comment? To say “have the police got nothing better to do” is unfair I feel. I’m a former journalist and if said organisation refuses to say anything about a story you have asked them about, the article gets slapped with “police today refused to comment”. Which looks worse? The fact the police are backed into a corner and asked to say something about safety or that they refuse to comment? If they didn’t condemn it and other people did the same thing but seriously hurt themselves, who would be criticised then for not condemning the behaviour in the first place? The police!
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£50?
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God what next.. Young people having fun. This I believe was a number of years ago , all had full safety equipment on and no one was hurt -I think your reporters must be too fat and lazy to get of there backsides and find real stories -Maybe taking up some healthy outdoor sport like canoeing will help ….
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Can I claim £50 for a video clip I got at the weekend when one Lewis Hamilton went wheel to wheel with Fernando Alonso at almost 200 mph! Surely this was extremely dangerous both to the drivers and to the 100,000 people watching!
Surely this should be major news for the Shropshire Star and should be investigated by the police who the Star seems to infer have nothing better to do!
/END OF SARCASM
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apparently the college arent too happy!
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Check out the video on youtube, title is Shrewsbury bridge jump, it has sound. Can I have my £50 now? I can send you the full version if you want?!
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apparently its not gone down too well with the college
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The whole the so sad… The event was clearly done safely – they are all wearing full safety gear and the longer video shows all the paddlers going out onto the river to check the depth under the bridge.
It is this culture of fear, health and safety and liability that is creating overweight, uninspired young adults, who instead of participating in outdoor sports, end up playing computer games or drinking cider in a park out of sheer boredom.
Shame on the Shropshire Star!
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What was the editor thinking? The headline in the paper was ‘MADNESS’ – well the only madness I see evidence of is putting this ’story’ on the front page.
It was, quite simply, sensationalist clap-trap of the worst kind – even worse than that nonsense article they ran the other day about the rather fun looking go-kart towing event.
Kids, Teenagers, Adults and Pensioners will ALL do apparently risky things for fun (well… unless they are boring) and always have. Personally, I’d like to have a go at both the kart-towing and the canoe jumping and I’m 53! As they say – you don’t stop having fun because you get old – you get old because you stop having fun!
True, someone could have got injured, but so what? You could get injured by playing football or skiing or bungy-jumping or white-water rafting or even crossing the road. Its the choice of the participants as to what risks they are prepared to take – and quite frankly, as fun as the karting and canoeing stunts looked, the risk of serious injury seemed minimal to me. But then I’m not a reporter for a local rag or a policeman forced into a position in which I have to comment.
So, Shropshire Star, leave your sanctimonious waffle out of your articles, and get back to reporting real stories!
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i think it was great why not?
they didnt hurt anyone or intereupt anything let them do it.
look out for the base jumper from the market hall tower on the 25th june at midday. you think this was bad wait to you see this one!
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Dangerous or not but the Shropshirestar is certainly making the most of small news like this to sell it’s papers. By doing so i would think condoning the so called stunts.
As for the canoe stunt, helmets worn and lifejackets. Come on get a life this is not newsworthy.
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Shropshire Star. You are now a joke.
2003! 6 years to find this?? And it was as safe as canoeing ever can be!
I think I’m going to have to stop reading this paper.
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My word; I feel concerned now about a few of the trackdays I did in 2007 where at one point I went around a corner at 120mph…. I’m off to delete the footage.
Jesus I was doing stuff like this in primary school at Clywedog lake at the stay little summer week breaks, carry on lads!
At 27 I still go and jump off a few local bridges in the summer with the hot weather, in fact half my family do and friends do. How dare we enjoy the weather and nature?!
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Cool video clip. I don’t see what they were doing wrong. The College probably felt that they had to say it was wrong.
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Hardly death-defying is it, 20ft? People dive more than that without the relative protection of a canoe, so what’s the issue?
It’s unnecessary for the Star to jump on the nannying bandwagon. It appears they have no sense of adventure. Boys will be boys, don’t make an issue out of it!
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I did think about stopping buying the Star after all this but maybe I can just shred it and use it to line my well stuffed safety jacket, instead of the bubble wrap that I normally wear when venturing out to buy my paper in this really dangerous world we appear to live in…;-)
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The Shropshire Star is a business and their business is to write stories people will read. Bearing in mind this is the most commented story on the website and is being talked about by most of Shrewsbury I would say they have achieved exactly what they are meant to do.
If the stories are bad it is because you people only read the trash.
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