Tree just missed boater

IT SEEMS it is not only the water that can be dangerous on the Kennet & Avon Canal, but trees too, as one hire boater discovered.

The boater was operating one of the locks on the Bath Flight when a tree fell on him, and paramedics were called. But luckily it was only the outer branches that trapped him, and he escaped with minor injuries, 'Adrian' tells us.

Could have been killed

A Great Western Ambulance Service spokesman told that the man had been 'extremely lucky', and that had he been just a few inches nearer where the tree fell, he could have been killed. He was taken to Bath's Royal United Hospital requiring treatment for back and chest injuries.

It is thought a combination of wind and heavy rain was responsible for causing the tree to fall, and again it highlights the dangers of unstable trees by the waterways that British Waterways wish to fell, but are prevented from so doing by various organisations, who do not see the dangers.