Father of man who died in drain says pain will never leave him

Standing in the kitchen of the home he once shared with his son, Michael Barnett casts a glance at the young man's bike with mud still on its wheels.

Mr Barnett can't bare to wipe the dirt away from the cycle, clinging to every last memory of his son, who was also called Michael.

Michael's bedroom also remains untouched – just as he left it one year ago today.

Mr Barnett even calls out to Michael when he leaves the house, but the knowledge he will never hear a reply is too much to bear.

And as he gazes out of his living room window, he catches sight of a young man on a bike wearing a woolly hat.

“I was ready to get up and open the front door because I thought it was him,” he said.

“I still knock on his bedroom door and ask if he is all right. Whenever I go out, I shout up to him.

“You can't imagine yourself in a situation like this.”

Michael Barnett, 28, died of hypothermia after getting his leg trapped in a temporary grille in a storm drain in Astral Close, Hessle, on June 25 last year.

Emergency workers were unable to free him and a verdict of accidental death was returned by an inquest jury.

One year on, the painful memories of that day are still difficult for 66-year-old Mr Barnett, of Willerby Road, west Hull, to comprehend.

He said: “If I sit down, I think. It seems like a story book.

“When I first used to go to bed, I used to re-enact in my mind what happened on that day – the phone ringing, his boss on the end of the phone, me saying he shouldn't be there, going there.

“You don't realise this has happened to you. It is quiet at home. I miss his company.

“I have bad days and good days. But if I'm doing something positive like highlighting the problem with the drains, I'm thinking positively. If I'm sat here looking at his photograph, which I do quite a lot, that is negative.”

Mr Barnett regularly visits the drain where his son tragically lost his life and was today due to lay flowers at the scene.

“I usually go on a night while it's raining and it's quiet, just to see how the water is doing,” he said.

Mr Barnett said he will continue to speak out about flooding and drain maintenance and has said he does not blame anyone for his son's death.

“I don't want him to have died in vain,” he said. “It's all right doing people's houses up, but the problem is not being sorted out.

“Some people say I shouldn't have talked to the media, but I just thought I could get something done with the water.

“But nothing has been done. It's all promises.

“People will probably get fed up of seeing me in the paper, but I don't care.

“It is on my mind all the time.”

One year on, metal railings still remain in place around the drain and plastic barriers and cones line the area in front of a sign that reads: “Danger Deep Water.”

Mr Barnett said: “Nothing has changed in Astral Close.

“I was in my 20s when I used to go round there and it was like that then. That's more than 40 years ago.

“I think if I hadn't lost our Mike, I wouldn't have campaigned as much. I would have definitely had my say about the water, but with his death I have done more.”

But Environment Agency area flood risk manager Peter Holmes said work had been done on the drain.

He said: “Since the flood last summer, the Environment Agency has re-profiled the Western Drain channel to give it more capacity, repaired channel side slips, cleared vegetation and debris, and removed silt from culverts.

“We are working closely with East Riding Council on the best possible long-term solution to reducing flood risk at Western Drain and held a public drop-in session a couple of weeks ago to discuss proposals.

“Given the technical aspects of the waterway, we believe creating a floodwater storage area provides the most practical and cost-effective option to protect properties along Western Drain.”