Incident Report: Ashley Chaney

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Ashley Chaney was 2 years old when, on Saturday 19 March 2005, he fell into the garden pond at his home in Bursledon and drowned. Ashley lived with his father, Martyn Chaney, his father’s partner Ruth Chaney, and his three siblings, Tracy (11 years old), Mitchell (8 years old), and Riley (5 months old).

Mr Chaney was at the front of the house with a family friend, Mr Barry Gray, enjoying the sunshine on a hot summer’s day when Ashley ventured into the garden to find a football. Moments later, Mr Chaney realised something was wrong and ran into the garden, where he found Ashley in the garden fishpond (Robson, 2018). Despite efforts to revive Ashley, he was pronounced dead at his home the same day.

Mr Gray said following the incident (Cox, 2005):

When I reached the back garden, Ashley was lying two or three feet from the pond with Mr Chaney by his side, and I just tried to help.

A statement from the family read (Coventry Evening Telegraph, 2005):

Ashley was our happy, strong-minded, and well-loved two-year-old son who tragically fell into our garden pond yesterday and died.

We as a family are completely devastated and do not know how to begin to come to terms with the loss of our beloved son, grandson, great-grandson, brother, nephew, and cousin.

Please fill your pond in or make it safe. Make it safe for Ashley. We just can't bear to see this happen to anyone else. No one should have to bury their own son like this.

Keep your eyes open now that summer is coming. We want people to realise how dangerous ponds are. Our garden pond has now been filled in. We are making a nice flower garden for Ashley.

Mr Chaney later said in 2018 (Robson, 2018):

I’d put the pond in, I had a fence around it, the back door was always closed, we kept the kids away from it. It still plays on my mind. To this day, I can’t realise how he even got there.

I didn’t fully realise the dangers at the time. Yes, it made the garden look nice but even a few inches of water can be deadly.

It was a tragic accident but obviously, you look back and wonder what you could have done differently. It’s something I live with every day but hopefully, I can at least help prevent it from happening to another family.

I just want to raise awareness of safety around water. Keep an eye on your kids around ponds, paddling pools and things like that.

It hit my grandfather very hard, and I wouldn’t have been comfortable doing this with him around. But now, I just feel I have to tell Ashley’s story again to try and ensure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. I think the time is right.

I live near the boating lake and my heart is in my mouth when I see kids running around there. I see the parents let them do it and think ‘no, watch them all the time, one trip and they’re in the water.

References (11)

^{Note: I wish those affected all the best in their future. No part of this article purports to attribute blame. See our methodology page for further details of how these case summaries are constructed.} 

^{BBC News. (2005). Pond death parents in safety plea. (20th March, 14:14). Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4366163.stm accessed 9th February 2022.}

^{BBC News. (2005). Two-year-old child drowns in pond. (20th March, 11:30). Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4365151.stm accessed 9th February 2022.}

^{Coventry Evening Telegraph. (2005). Family’s pain over pond death. (21st March). Available at: https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Family%27s+pain+over+pond+death.-a0130626397 accessed 9th February 2022.}

^{Cox, J. (2005). Pal tried to save drowning pond tot. (The Mirror, 21st March). Available at: https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Pal+tried+to+save+drowning+pond+tot.-a0130554927 accessed 9th February 2022.}

^{Daily Echo. (2005). Unbearable grief. (22nd March). Available at: https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/5553194.unbearable-grief/ accessed 9th February 2022.}

^{Finney, S. (2005). Two-year-old drowns after falling into farm pond. (3rd May, 10:26). Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-347139/Two-year-old-drowns-falling-farm-pond.html accessed 9th February 2022.}

^{Robson, D. (2016). I live with it every day. Dad’s heartbreak after son, 2, drowned in 3ft deep pond in garden. (5th May, 09:14; first published at 07:57). Available at: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/i-live-every-day-dads-12483976 accessed 9th February 2022.}

^{Robson, D. (2018). Dad whose two-year-old son drowned in garden pond makes emotional water safety plea. (Teeside Live, 4 May, 18:00). Available at: https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/dad-whose-two-year-old-14616700 accessed 9th February 2022.}

^{Smith, A. (2018). Heartbroken dad issues warning to parents after son, 2, drowned in garden pond. (Metro, 5th May, 10:29). Available at: https://metro.co.uk/2018/05/05/heartbroken-dad-issues-warning-to-parents-after-son-2-drowned-in-garden-pond-7522555/ accessed 9th February 2022.}

^{Wilson, E. (2005). Life after birth. (The Guardian, 23rd March, 16:20). Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2005/mar/23/familyandrelationships.emilywilson accessed 9th February 2022.}

^{Yafai, F. (2005). Toddler drowns in garden pond. (The Guardian, 21st March, 00:03). Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/mar/21/faisalalyafai accessed 9th February 2022.}

Citation: Jacklin, D. 2021. Case Report: Ashley Chaney. Water Incident Research Hub, 10th February.