Cart volunteer plunged into lock

A VOLUNTEER lock keeper was quite proud at getting a quad bike for getting up and down the locks at Devizes, but just could not control it, and ended up with it plunging into a lock.

It was the volunteer's first day as lock keeper, but he obviously had not been fully instructed of the use of the quad bike, as an onlooker told how he careered off at speed obviously out of control and drove straight into a lock, Allan Richards tells us.

Face down

He ended up face down in the water in the bottom of the lock, but luckily he was not on his own, otherwise it could have been fatal, for the life jacket did nothing to help him.

It was boater Barry Reed who clambered down into the lock and dragged the volunteer face upwards so he could breath, then towards the ladder where together with the other volunteer lock keeper they managed to get the man out.

The emergency services had been called as a number of ambulances and the police arrived, with the volunteer taken to hospital, where he recovered.