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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
John Cooper

'Daredevil' freerunner died after jumping headfirst from train station handrail

A teenager died from a traumatic brain injury two weeks after "hurling himself" 19ft from a handrail at a railway station in Swansea , an inquest heard.

Ryan Davies was found "stumbling and confused" by the driver of a train which stopped at Gowerton railway station at 8.10pm on September 12 last year.

Paul Summerfield, the driver of the Carmarthen to Cardiff service, was given the signal to move off by his colleague but refused to leave the station until he had investigated the male he spotted "missing one of his trainers and stumbling" on the platform.

"We were concerned that he had been attacked or had been hit by another train," he said in a written statement.

When approached Mr Davies was "mumbling incoherently" and Mr Summerfield noticed blood was running from his ear.

The crew of the train took Mr Davies to Swansea railway station where medical teams met them and conveyed him to Morriston Hospital .

The following day Mr Davies was taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff where he was treated in the intensive care unit for a further two weeks before the decision was made to turn off his life support on September 28.

The cause of death was recorded as "traumatic brain injuries consistent with falling from height".

Speaking at the inquest at Swansea Civic Centre on Wednesday, assistant coroner Aled Wyn Gruffydd said: "CCTV footage [from Gowerton station] revealed that Ryan was hanging around platform one before wandering back to platform two, climbing onto the rail and hurling himself off."

What is an inquest?

Mr Gruffydd said the CCTV footage was blurry and it was "difficult to see whether the incident was intentional or whether Ryan was practising his hobby of freerunning".

The inquest heard Mr Davies, from Meadowcroft Place, Waunarlwydd, had no past evidence of depression or suicidal thoughts but had taken two of his father's Mirtazapine tablets on the evening of the incident. Medical evidence at the inquest confirmed the anti-depressant at this dosage would not have contributed to his death.

Mr Davies was said to have been in a good mood when helping his brother to decorate a house in Clydach the day before the incident. He had also spoken to his father, Nicky Davies, at 7.50pm on September 12 who said he had "seemed well then".

Katie Marie Davies, Mr Davies' mother, described her son as a "daredevil who wasn't afraid of heights and would try and jump off anything" when doing freerunning  a sport involving jumping, flipping, or spinning from obstacles and buildings.

Mr Davies had earlier been admitted to hospital in 2016 with a broken ankle as a result of an injury sustained when freerunning.

The coroner recorded a conclusion of misadventure.
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